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Stunted growth : why don't African firms create more jobs ?

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  • Iacovone,Leonardo
  • Ramachandran,Vijaya
  • Schmidt,Martin

Abstract

Many countries in Africa suffer high rates of underemployment or low rates of productive employment; many also anticipate large numbers of people to enter the workforce in the near future. This paper asks the question: Are African firms creating fewer jobs than those located elsewhere? And, if so, why? One reason may be that weak business environments slow the growth of firms and distort the allocation of resources away from better-performing firms, hence reducing their potential for job creation. The paper uses data from 41,000 firms across 119 countries to examine the drivers of firm growth, with a special focus on African firms. African firms, at any age, tend to be 20-24 percent smaller than firms in other regions of the world. The poor business environment, driven by limited access to finance, and the lack of availability of electricity, land, and unskilled labor have some value in explaining this difference. Foreign ownership, the export status of the firm, and the size of the market are also significant determinants of firm size. However, even after controlling for the business environment and for characteristics of firms and markets, about 60 percent of the size gap between African and non-African firms remains unexplained.

Suggested Citation

  • Iacovone,Leonardo & Ramachandran,Vijaya & Schmidt,Martin, 2013. "Stunted growth : why don't African firms create more jobs ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6727, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6727
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    Cited by:

    1. World Bank Group, 2016. "Kenya Country Economic Memorandum," World Bank Publications - Reports 24008, The World Bank Group.
    2. Ibrahim Mike Okumu & Patricia Naluwooza & Edward Bbaale, 2022. "Firm Dynamics, Job Creation and Job Destruction in Africa: Is the Quality of Institutional Environment Relevant?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(6), pages 2970-3004, December.
    3. Punam Chuhan-Pole & Cesar Calderon & Gerard Kambou & Sebastien Boreux & Mapi M. Buitano & Vijdan Korman & Megumi Kubota & Rafael M. Lopez-Monti, "undated". "Africa's Pulse, No.13, April 2016," World Bank Publications - Reports 24033, The World Bank Group.
    4. Eberhard-Ruiz, Andreas & Moradi, Alexander, 2019. "Regional market integration in East Africa: Local but no regional effects?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 255-268.
    5. Gelb, Alan & Meyer, Christian J. & Ramachandran, Vijaya, 2014. "Development as diffusion: Manufacturing productivity and sub-Saharan Africa's missing middle," WIDER Working Paper Series 042, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Marco Sanfilippo & Adnan Seric, 2014. "Spillovers from agglomerations and inward FDI. A Multilevel Analysis on SSA domestic firms," RSCAS Working Papers 2014/76, European University Institute.
    7. Marco Sanfilippo & Adnan Seric, 2016. "Spillovers from agglomerations and inward FDI: a multilevel analysis on sub-Saharan African firms," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 152(1), pages 147-176, February.
    8. Marcus H. Böhme & Sarah Kups, 2017. "The economic effects of labour immigration in developing countries: A literature review," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 335, OECD Publishing.
    9. Alan Gelb & Christian J. Meyer & Vijaya Ramachandran, 2014. "Development as Diffusion: Manufacturing Productivity and Sub-Saharan Africa's Missing Middle," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-042, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Sanfilippo, Marco, 2018. "Firm performance and participation in public procurement: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," CEPR Discussion Papers 12752, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Abdisa, Lamessa T., 2019. "Firm Performance Under Infrastructure Constraints: Evodence from Sub-sahara African Firms," MPRA Paper 95758, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Alan Gelb, Christian Meyer, and Vijaya Ramachandran, 2014. "Development as Diffusion: Manufacturing Productivity and Sub-Saharan Africa’s Missing Middle - Working Paper 357," Working Papers 357, Center for Global Development.
    13. Stephen Esaku, 2022. "Which firms drive employment growth in Sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence from Kenya," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 383-396, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor Policies; E-Business; Environmental Economics&Policies; Small Scale Enterprise; Microfinance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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