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SMEs and regional economic growth in Brazil

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  • Túlio Cravo
  • Adrian Gourlay
  • Bettina Becker

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector and economic growth for an annual panel of Brazilian states for the period 1985-2004. We investigate the importance of the relative size of the SME sector measured by the share of the SME employment in total formal employment and the level of human capital in SMEs measured by the average years of schooling of SME employees. The empirical results indicate that the relative importance of SMEs is negatively correlated with economic growth, a result that is consistent with previous studies examining developing countries. In addition, our results also show that human capital embodied in SMEs may be more important for economic growth than the relative size of the SME sector.
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  • Túlio Cravo & Adrian Gourlay & Bettina Becker, 2012. "SMEs and regional economic growth in Brazil," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 217-230, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:38:y:2012:i:2:p:217-230
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-010-9261-z
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    9. Pires, Jose Claudio Linhares & Cravo, Tulio & Lodato, Simon & Piza, Caio, 2013. "Industrial Clusters and Economic Performance in Brazil," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 4771, Inter-American Development Bank.
    10. Massón-Guerra, José Luis & Ortín-Angel, Pedro, 2014. "Entrepreneurship Capital and Regional Productivity Revisited," MPRA Paper 57470, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Soumya Basu & Anton N Isaacs, 2019. "Profile of transcultural patients in a regional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in Gippsland, Australia: The need for a multidimensional understanding of the complexities," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(3), pages 217-224, May.
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    15. Diane Perrons & Robin Dunford, 2013. "Regional development, equality and gender: Moving towards more inclusive and socially sustainable measures," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 34(3), pages 483-499, August.
    16. Ricardo Carvalho De Andrade Lima & Raul Da Mota Silveira Neto, 2016. "Physical and Human Capital and Brazilian Regional Growth: A Spatial Econometric Approach for the Period 1970–2010," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(10), pages 1688-1701, October.
    17. Gille, Véronique, 2015. "Distribution of human capital and income: An empirical study on Indian States," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 239-256.
    18. Lauro Gonzalez & Caio Piza & Tulio Cravo & Samer Abdelnour & Linnet Taylor, 2014. "Protocol for a Systematic Review: The Impacts of Business Support Services for Small and Medium Enterprises on Firm Performance in Low‐and Middle‐Income Countries: A Systematic Review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(1), pages 1-46.
    19. Oluseyi Moses Ajayi & Susan C. Morton, 2015. "Exploring the Enablers of Organizational and Marketing Innovations in SMEs," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(1), pages 21582440155, February.
    20. José Luis Massón-Guerra & Pedro Ortín-Ángel, 2017. "Regional entrepreneurship capital and firm production," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 595-607, October.
    21. Madiha Noshad & Mariam Amjad & Muhammad Nouman Shafiq & Seemab Gillani, 2019. "Performance and Obstacles of SMEs: An Empirical Evidence from BRICS Countries," iRASD Journal of Economics, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 1(2), pages 113-132, December.
    22. ONIFADE Stephen Taiwo & ACET Hakan & ÇEVİK Savaş, 2022. "Modeling The Impacts Of Msmes' Contributions To Gdp And Their Constraints On Unemployment: The Case Of African’S Most Populous Country," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 17(1), pages 154-170, April.
    23. Dhar, Rajib Lochan, 2015. "Service quality and the training of employees: The mediating role of organizational commitment," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 419-430.
    24. Anil Rupasingha & Stephan J. Goetz, 2013. "Self-employment and local economic performance: Evidence from US counties," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(1), pages 141-161, March.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Firm size; Market structure; Economic growth; Human capital; O1; O15; L26; L11;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance

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