IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp4486.html

SME Policy and Firms’ Productivity in Latin America

Author

Listed:
  • Ibarrarán, Pablo

    (Inter-American Development Bank)

  • Maffioli, Alessandro

    (Inter-American Development Bank)

  • Stucchi, Rodolfo

    (Inter-American Development Bank)

Abstract

Very little is known about the effectiveness of SME policies, and a careful look at the structure, mechanisms and incentives provided by these policies suggest caution in their implementation and, most importantly, the need to carefully and closely monitor their results. This paper relies on the microeconometric analysis of a homogeneous dataset of sixteen Latin American and Caribbean countries to analyze the magnitude and determinants of the productivity gap between large and SME firms and to simulate of the impact on productivity of various policy scenarios.

Suggested Citation

  • Ibarrarán, Pablo & Maffioli, Alessandro & Stucchi, Rodolfo, 2009. "SME Policy and Firms’ Productivity in Latin America," IZA Discussion Papers 4486, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4486
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp4486.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bronwyn Hall & Alessandro Maffioli, 2008. "Evaluating the impact of technology development funds in emerging economies: evidence from Latin America," The European Journal of Development Research, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 172-198.
    2. Jose Miguel Benavente & Gustavo Crespi, 2003. "The Impact of an Associative Strategy (the PROFO Program) on Small and Medium Enterprises in Chile," SPRU Working Paper Series 88, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    3. Bronwyn Hall & Alessandro Maffioli, 2008. "Evaluating the impact of technology development funds in emerging economies: evidence from Latin America," The European Journal of Development Research, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 172-198.
    4. Alessandro Maffioli, 2005. "The Formation of Network and Public Intervention: Theory and Evidence from the Chilean Experience," ISLA Working Papers 23, ISLA, Centre for research on Latin American Studies and Transition Economies, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy, revised May 2005.
    5. repec:idb:brikps:publication-detail,7101.html?id=23644 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Zoltán J. Ács & Pamela Mueller, 2015. "Employment effects of business dynamics: Mice, Gazelles and Elephants," Chapters, in: Global Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Incentives, chapter 16, pages 304-319, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Escribano, Álvaro & Guasch, J. Luis & Orte, Manuel De & Pena, Jorge, 2008. "Investment climate assessment based on demean Olley and Pakes decompositions: methodology and application to Turkey's investment climate survey," UC3M Working papers. Economics we082012, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    8. Delgado, Miguel A. & Farinas, Jose C. & Ruano, Sonia, 2002. "Firm productivity and export markets: a non-parametric approach," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 397-422, August.
    9. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirguc-Kunt & Ross Levine, 2005. "SMEs, Growth, and Poverty: Cross-Country Evidence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 199-229, September.
    10. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, 2004. "SMEs, Growth, and Poverty," World Bank Publications - Reports 11278, The World Bank Group.
    11. Lucia Foster & John C. Haltiwanger & C. J. Krizan, 2001. "Aggregate Productivity Growth: Lessons from Microeconomic Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 303-372, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Pedro Cerdán-Infantes & Alessandro Maffioli & Diego Ubfal, 2008. "The Impact of Agricultural Extension Services: The Case of Grape Production in Argentina," OVE Working Papers 0508, Inter-American Development Bank, Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE).
    13. Martin Neil Baily & Robert M. Solow, 2001. "International Productivity Comparisons Built from the Firm Level," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 151-172, Summer.
    14. Alvarez, Roberto & Crespi, Gustavo, 2003. "Determinants of Technical Efficiency in Small Firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 233-244, May.
    15. You, Jong-Il, 1995. "Small Firms in Economic Theory," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 19(3), pages 441-462, June.
    16. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    17. Lucia Foster & John Haltiwanger & Chad Syverson, 2008. "Reallocation, Firm Turnover, and Efficiency: Selection on Productivity or Profitability?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(1), pages 394-425, March.
    18. Peres, Wilson & Stumpo, Giovanni, 2000. "Small and Medium-Sized Manufacturing Enterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean Under the New Economic Model," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 1643-1655, September.
    19. Meghana Ayyagari & Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirguc-Kunt, 2007. "Small and Medium Enterprises Across the Globe," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 415-434, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:idb:brikps:7203 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Almeida, Rita K. & Aterido, Reyes, 2010. "The Investment in Job Training: Why Are SMEs Lagging So Much Behind?," IZA Discussion Papers 4981, IZA Network @ LISER.
    3. Fatma Bouattour, 2015. "Financial constraints and export performance: Evidence from Brazilian micro-data," Post-Print hal-01267726, HAL.
    4. repec:dau:papers:123456789/15256 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Schwalje, Wes, 2011. "The Prevalence and Impact of Skills Gaps on Latin America and the Caribbean," MPRA Paper 30247, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Verónica Alaimo & Mariano Bosch & David S. Kaplan & Carmen Pagés & Laura Ripani, 2015. "Jobs for Growth," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 90977, February.
    7. Rita Almeida & Reyes Aterido, 2015. "Investing in formal on-the-job training: are SMEs lagging much behind?," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-23, December.
    8. Claudio Candia & Medardo Aguirre & Natalia Correa & María J. Herrera, 2016. "La productividad total de factores en el sector manufacturero chileno," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 18(35), pages 229-255, July-Dece.
    9. Álvarez, Roberto & Bertin, Mauricio Jara, 2016. "Banking competition and firm-level financial constraints in Latin America," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 89-104.

    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. Ajai Chopra, 2015. "Financing Productivity- and Innovation-Led Growth in Developing Asia: International Lessons and Policy Issues," Working Paper Series WP15-6, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    2. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2018. "The Reallocation Myth," Working Papers 18-19, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Castillo, Victoria & Figal-Garone, Lucas & Maffioli, Alessandro & Rojo, Sofia & Stucchi, Rodolfo, 2016. "The Effects of Knowledge Spillovers through Labor Mobility," MPRA Paper 69141, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Francesco Serti & Chiara Tomasi, 2008. "Self-Selection and Post-Entry Effects of Exports: Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Firms," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 144(4), pages 660-694, December.
    5. Tulio Cravo & Caio Piza, 2016. "The Impact of Business Support Services for Small and Medium Enterprises on Firm Performance in Low -and Middle- Income Countries: A Meta-Analysis," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 94938, Inter-American Development Bank.
    6. Raphael Bergoeing & Andrés Hernando & Andrea Repetto, 2003. "Idiosyncratic Productivity Shocks and Plant-Level Heterogeneity," Documentos de Trabajo 173, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    7. Escribano, Álvaro & Stucchi, Rodolfo, 2008. "Catching up in total factor productivity through the business cycle : evidence from Spanish manufacturing surveys," UC3M Working papers. Economics we085125, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    8. Ulf Lewrick & Lukas Mohler & Rolf Weder, 2014. "When firms and industries matter: understanding the sources of productivity growth," BIS Working Papers 469, Bank for International Settlements.
    9. Brandt, Loren & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Zhang, Yifan, 2012. "Creative accounting or creative destruction? Firm-level productivity growth in Chinese manufacturing," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 339-351.
    10. Eslava, Marcela & Haltiwanger, John C. & Kugler, Adriana & Kugler, Maurice, 2009. "Trade Reforms and Market Selection: Evidence from Manufacturing Plants in Colombia," IZA Discussion Papers 4256, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. John Haltiwanger & Henry Hyatt & Erika McEntarfer & Matthew Staiger, 2025. "Cyclical Worker Flows: Cleansing vs. Sullying," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 55, January.
    12. Catherine Fuss & Ladislav Wintr, 2009. "Rigid labour compensation and flexible employment ? Firm-level evidence with regard to productivity for Belgium," Working Paper Research 159, National Bank of Belgium.
    13. Contreras Juan & Patel Elena & Tristao Ignez, 2013. "Production Factors, Productivity Dynamics and Quality Gains as Determinants of Healthcare Spending Growth in U.S. Hospitals," Working Papers 2013-13, Banco de México.
    14. G. Jacob Blackwood & Lucia S. Foster & Cheryl A. Grim & John Haltiwanger & Zoltan Wolf, 2021. "Macro and Micro Dynamics of Productivity: From Devilish Details to Insights," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 142-172, July.
    15. Cravo, Túlio A., 2011. "Are small employers more cyclically sensitive? Evidence from Brazil," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 754-769.
    16. Túlio A. Cravo & Caio Piza, 2019. "The impact of business-support services on firm performance: a meta-analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 753-770, October.
    17. Massimo Del Gatto & Adriana Di Liberto & Carmelo Petraglia, 2011. "Measuring Productivity," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 952-1008, December.
    18. Bakhtiari, Sasan, 2017. "Corporate credit ratings: Selection on size or productivity?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 84-101.
    19. Allan Collard-Wexler & Jan De Loecker, 2015. "Reallocation and Technology: Evidence from the US Steel Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(1), pages 131-171, January.
    20. Jinjarak, Yothin & Wignaraja, Ganeshan, 2016. "An Empirical Assessment of the Export—Financial Constraint Relationship: How Different are Small and Medium Enterprises?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 152-163.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • L53 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Enterprise Policy
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp4486. 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: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    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.