IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/7605.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Revisiting the impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES program on firms'formalization rates

Author

Listed:
  • Piza,Caio

Abstract

A recent survey of rigorous impact evaluations of programs to help small and medium-size firms to formalize indicates that the programs do not seem to work for most informal firms. One of the few exceptions finds large effects of a tax simplification program in Brazil called SIMPLES on firms'formalization rates and performance indicators. Using the same data set but a different identification strategy, another study concludes that the program had limited effect on formalization rates. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it revisits the two studies to reconcile their conflicting conclusions. Second, it investigates the validity of the identification strategy of both studies. The findings suggest that the conflicting results between the two studies are caused by the dates each used to identify when the program was put into effect. A robustness check indicates that data heaping and seasonality around November cast doubts on the identification strategy used in both studies to estimate the effect of this particular program.

Suggested Citation

  • Piza,Caio, 2016. "Revisiting the impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES program on firms'formalization rates," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7605, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7605
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/901421467995383598/pdf/WPS7605.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miriam Bruhn & David McKenzie, 2014. "Entry Regulation and the Formalization of Microenterprises in Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 29(2), pages 186-201.
    2. Áureo de Paula & Jose A. Scheinkman, 2010. "Value-Added Taxes, Chain Effects, and Informality," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 195-221, October.
    3. 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.
    4. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
    5. Monteiro, Joana C.M. & Assunção, Juliano J., 2012. "Coming out of the shadows? Estimating the impact of bureaucracy simplification and tax cut on formality in Brazilian microenterprises," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 105-115.
    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. Diaz, Juan Jose & Chacaltana, Juan & Rigolini, Jamele & Ruiz, Claudia, 2018. "Pathways to Formalization: Going beyond the Formality Dichotomy," IZA Discussion Papers 11750, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. 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.
    3. Floridi, A. & Demena, B.A. & Wagner, N., 2019. "Shedding light on the shadows of informality," ISS Working Papers - General Series 642, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    4. Alvarez, Bruna & Pessoa, João Paulo & Souza, André Portela, 2022. "Firm size distribution and informality effects of a revenue-dependent tax policy," Textos para discussão 561, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
    5. Azuara Herrera, Oliver & Azuero, Rodrigo & Bosch, Mariano & Torres, Jesica, 2019. "Special Tax Regimes in Latin America and the Caribbean: Compliance, Social Protection, and Resource Misallocation," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 9511, Inter-American Development Bank.

    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. Rocha, Rudi & Ulyssea, Gabriel & Rachter, Laísa, 2018. "Do lower taxes reduce informality? Evidence from Brazil," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 28-49.
    2. Piza, Caio, 2018. "Out of the Shadows? Revisiting the impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES program on firms’ formalization rates," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 125-132.
    3. Arbex, Marcelo Aarestru & Mattos, Enlinson, 2020. "Limited tax capacity and the optimal taxation of firms," Textos para discussão 539, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
    4. Hasan, Rana & Jiang, Yi & Rafols, Radine Michelle, 2021. "Place-based preferential tax policy and industrial development: Evidence from India’s program on industrially backward districts," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    5. Cabrera, José María & Cid, Alejandro & Bernatzky, Marianne Bernatzky, 2016. "The effect of one-on-one assistance on the compliance with labor regulation. A field experiment in extremely vulnerable settings," MPRA Paper 84639, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. 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.
    7. Jessen, Jonas & Kluve, Jochen, 2021. "The effectiveness of interventions to reduce informality in low- and middle-income countries," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 138.
    8. Floridi, A. & Demena, B.A. & Wagner, N., 2019. "Shedding light on the shadows of informality," ISS Working Papers - General Series 642, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    9. Gabriel Ulyssea, 2018. "Firms, Informality, and Development: Theory and Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(8), pages 2015-2047, August.
    10. 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).
    11. Acosta, Matias, 2021. "¿Cómo afecta la formalización del trabajo informal independiente de barrios populares a la pobreza multidimensional urbana?," SocArXiv hfmnb, Center for Open Science.
    12. 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).
    13. Erosa, Andrés & Fuster, Luisa & Martinez, Tomás R., 2023. "Public financing with financial frictions and underground economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 20-36.
    14. Miriam Bruhn & Jan Loeprick, 2016. "Small business tax policy and informality: evidence from Georgia," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(5), pages 834-853, October.
    15. Galiani, Sebastian & Meléndez, Marcela & Ahumada, Camila Navajas, 2017. "On the effect of the costs of operating formally: New experimental evidence," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 143-157.
    16. Floridi, Andrea & Demena, Binyam Afewerk & Wagner, Natascha, 2020. "Shedding light on the shadows of informality: A meta-analysis of formalization interventions targeted at informal firms," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    17. repec:wly:camsys:v:10:y:2014:i:1:p:1-46:b is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Daniil A. Sitkevich, 2022. "Shadow economy: To legalise or to tolerate?," Journal of New Economy, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 23(3), pages 6-22, October.
    19. 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.
    20. Suresh de Mel & David McKenzie & Christopher Woodruff, 2013. "The Demand for, and Consequences of, Formalization among Informal Firms in Sri Lanka," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 122-150, April.
    21. Valentina A. Assenova & Olav Sorenson, 2017. "Legitimacy and the Benefits of Firm Formalization," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(5), pages 804-818, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    E-Business; Science Education; Microfinance; Small Scale Enterprises; Scientific Research&Science Parks;
    All these keywords.

    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:wbk:wbrwps:7605. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.