IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v40y2012i5p983-998.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Benefits of Formalization: Evidence from Vietnamese Manufacturing SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Rand, John
  • Torm, Nina

Abstract

Based on unique panel data consisting of both formal and informal firms, this paper uses a matched double difference approach to examine the relationship between legal status and firm level outcomes in micro, small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. Controlling for determining factors and observable time-variant factors that may simultaneously influence the decision to formalize and subsequent firm performance, we find evidence that becoming officially registered leads to an increase in profits and investments, and a decrease in the use of casual labor (improved contract conditions for workers). Thus, we conclude that formalizing is beneficial both to firms and the workers in these firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Rand, John & Torm, Nina, 2012. "The Benefits of Formalization: Evidence from Vietnamese Manufacturing SMEs," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 983-998.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:40:y:2012:i:5:p:983-998
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.09.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X11002269
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.09.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John McMillan & Christopher Woodruff, 1999. "Interfirm Relationships and Informal Credit in Vietnam," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1285-1320.
    2. John Rand, 2007. "‘Credit Constraints and Determinants of the Cost of Capital in Vietnamese Manufacturing’," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 1-13, June.
    3. Jesus Felipe & Rana Hasan (ed.), 2006. "Labor Markets in Asia," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-62738-3.
    4. James R. Tybout, 2000. "Manufacturing Firms in Developing Countries: How Well Do They Do, and Why?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 11-44, March.
    5. Dabla-Norris, Era & Gradstein, Mark & Inchauste, Gabriela, 2008. "What causes firms to hide output? The determinants of informality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1-2), pages 1-27, February.
    6. Era Dabla‐Norris & Andrew Feltenstein, 2005. "The underground economy and its macroeconomic consequences," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 153-174.
    7. McKenzie, David & Seynabou Sakho, Yaye, 2010. "Does it pay firms to register for taxes? The impact of formality on firm profitability," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 15-24, January.
    8. Ulyssea, Gabriel, 2010. "Regulation of entry, labor market institutions and the informal sector," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 87-99, January.
    9. Aureo de Paula & Jose A. Scheinkman, 2007. "The Informal Sector, Second Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 07-035, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 17 Oct 2007.
    10. Loayza, Norman V., 1996. "The economics of the informal sector: a simple model and some empirical evidence from Latin America," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 129-162, December.
    11. Nguyen, Binh T. & Albrecht, James W. & Vroman, Susan B. & Westbrook, M. Daniel, 2007. "A quantile regression decomposition of urban-rural inequality in Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 466-490, July.
    12. Anna Folke Larsen & John Rand & Nina Torm, 2011. "Do Recruitment Ties Affect Wages? An Analysis using Matched Employer–Employee Data from Vietnam," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 541-555, August.
    13. Aureo de Paula & Jose A. Scheinkman, 2006. "The Informal Sector," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000001030, UCLA Department of Economics.
    14. Pradhan, Menno & van Soest, Arthur, 1995. "Formal and informal sector employment in urban areas of Bolivia," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 275-297, September.
    15. Rand, John & Tarp, Finn & Cuong, Tran Tien & Tam, Nguyen Thanh, 2008. "SME Fringe Benefits Provision," MPRA Paper 29469, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Dominik H. Enste & Friedrich Schneider, 2000. "Shadow Economies: Size, Causes, and Consequences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 77-114, March.
    17. Rafael La Porta & Andrei Shleifer, 2008. "The Unofficial Economy and Economic Development," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 39(2 (Fall)), pages 275-363.
    18. John Rand & Finn Tarp, 2011. "Does Gender Influence the Provision of Fringe Benefits? Evidence From Vietnamese SMEs," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 59-87, January.
    19. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
    20. de Mel, Suresh & McKenzie, David J. & Woodruff, Christopher, 2009. "Measuring microenterprise profits: Must we ask how the sausage is made?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 19-31, January.
    21. Fajnzylber, Pablo & Maloney, William F. & Montes-Rojas, Gabriel V., 2011. "Does formality improve micro-firm performance? Evidence from the Brazilian SIMPLES program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 262-276, March.
    22. Gong, Xiaodong & van Soest, Arthur, 2002. "Wage differentials and mobility in the urban labour market: a panel data analysis for Mexico," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 513-529, September.
    23. David McKenzie & Christopher Woodruff, 2008. "Experimental Evidence on Returns to Capital and Access to Finance in Mexico," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(3), pages 457-482, November.
    24. Friedrich Schneider & Dominik Enste, 1999. "Shadow Economies Around the World - Size, Causes, and Consequences," CESifo Working Paper Series 196, CESifo.
    25. David Kaplan & Eduardo Piedra & Enrique Seira, 2006. "Are Burdensome Registration Procedures an Important Barrier on Firm Creation? Evidence from Mexico," Discussion Papers 06-013, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    26. Alberto Abadie & David Drukker & Jane Leber Herr & Guido W. Imbens, 2004. "Implementing matching estimators for average treatment effects in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(3), pages 290-311, September.
    27. Maloney, William F., 2004. "Informality Revisited," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1159-1178, July.
    28. Quy-Toan Do & Lakshmi Iyer, 2008. "Land Titling and Rural Transition in Vietnam," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(3), pages 531-579, April.
    29. Pablo Fajnzylber & William F. Maloney & Gabriel V. Montes-Rojas, 2009. "Releasing Constraints to Growth or Pushing on a String? Policies and Performance of Mexican Micro-Firms," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(7), pages 1027-1047, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amin, Mohammad & Islam, Asif, 2015. "Are Large Informal Firms More Productive than the Small Informal Firms? Evidence from Firm-Level Surveys in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 374-385.
    2. Becker, Dennis, 2014. "Heterogeneous Firms and Informality: The Effects of Trade Liberalization on Labor Markets," Working Papers 180124, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    3. Todd Kumler & Eric Verhoogen & Judith Frías, 2020. "Enlisting Employees in Improving Payroll Tax Compliance: Evidence from Mexico," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(5), pages 881-896, December.
    4. Amadou Boly, 2015. "On the Effects of Formalization on Taxes and Wages: Panel Evidence from Vietnam," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-042, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Amadou Boly, 2015. "On the effects of formalization on taxes and wages: Panel evidence from Vietnam," WIDER Working Paper Series 042, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Dennis Becker, 2018. "Heterogeneous firms and informality: the effects of trade liberalization on labour markets," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(1), pages 47-72.
    7. Kiyoyasu Tanaka & Souknilanh Keola, 2017. "Shedding Light on the Shadow Economy: A Nighttime Light Approach," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(1), pages 32-48, January.
    8. Amadou Boly, 2015. "On the Benefits of Formalization: Panel Evidence from Vietnam," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-038, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Amadou Boly, 2015. "On the benefits of formalization: Panel evidence from Vietnam," WIDER Working Paper Series 038, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Dorgyles C. M. Kouakou, 2023. "Competing against ‘invisibles’: the effect of competition from informal firms on formal firms’ R&D," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(1), pages 87-117, March.
    11. Olivier Bargain & Eliane Badaoui & Prudence Kwenda & Eric Strobl & Frank Walsh, 2012. "The formal sector wage premium and firm size for self-employed workers," Working Papers 201207, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    12. Thi Tran & Hai La, 2018. "Why do household businesses in Vietnam stay informal?," WIDER Working Paper Series 64, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Belal Fallah, 2014. "The Pros and Cons of Formalizing Informal MSES in the Palestinian Economy," Working Papers 893, Economic Research Forum, revised Dec 2014.
    14. Capasso, Salvatore & Jappelli, Tullio, 2013. "Financial development and the underground economy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 167-178.
    15. Becker, Dennis, 2014. "Informality among multi-product firms," Working Papers 250009, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    16. McKenzie, David & Seynabou Sakho, Yaye, 2010. "Does it pay firms to register for taxes? The impact of formality on firm profitability," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 15-24, January.
    17. D'Erasmo, Pablo N. & Moscoso Boedo, Hernan J., 2012. "Financial structure, informality and development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 286-302.
    18. Pablo N. D’Erasmo, 2016. "Access to Credit and the Size of the Formal Sector," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Spring 20), pages 143-199, April.
    19. Mitra, Shalini, 2014. "Tax Evasion, Tax Policies and the Role Played by Financial Markets," MPRA Paper 58977, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Kameliia Petrova, 2016. "Entrepreneurship And The Informal Economy: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(02), pages 1-21, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    formality; employment; Vietnam;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:40:y:2012:i:5:p:983-998. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.