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Book Cover
E-book
Author Ciani, Andrea, author

Title Making it big : why developing countries need more large firms / Andrea Ciani, Marie Caitriona Hyland, Nona Karalashvili, Jennifer L. Keller, Alexandros Ragoussis, and Trang Thu Tran
Published Washington, DC : World Bank Group, [2020]

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Description 1 online resource (xxii, 151 pages) : illustrations
Contents Front Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Executive Summary -- 12 Empirical Highlights -- Abbreviations -- Introduction Firms do not all serve the same purpose -- Firms do not all serve the same purpose -- How large is large? -- Note -- References -- 1. Large firms make distinct contributions to development -- Firm size is associated with productivity -- Size is a proxy for a package of characteristics and strategies -- Scale is associated with different returns to workers -- Macroeconomic outcomes are influenced by large-firm activity -- Notes -- References --
2. The "missing top" -- Lower-income countries tend to have smaller firms -- The gap is in the larger among large firms -- Is there a "missing top"? -- Notes -- References -- 3. Large-firm creation: Origins and growth paths -- What do we know about the origins of large firms? -- Cross-country information on firm creation -- Origin of large firms -- Growth paths of large firms -- Notes -- References -- 4. Supporting large-firm creation -- What types of constraints give rise to the "missing top"? -- How to foster large-firm creation? -- Technology changes large-firm creation, growth, and impact --
What are the options for low-income countries? -- Case study -- Large-firm creation in Guinea: Past, present, and future -- The role of development finance institutions -- Notes -- References -- Appendixes -- Appendix A: Methodology for large-firm premiums -- Appendix B: The OECD Orbis database -- Appendix C: Why is the large-firm wage premium higher in lower-income countries? -- Appendix D: Outliers of the firm distribution -- Appendix E: IFC client data -- Appendix F: Origin and growth path results -- Appendix G: Sample for the growth path analysis -- Appendix H: Growth paths for France --
Boxes -- Box 1.1 Comparability of data on establishments versus firms -- Box 1.2 Size and management practices in Latin America and the Caribbean -- Box 1.3 The International Income Distribution Data Set (I2D2) -- Box 1.4 Job quality and development: Is there a trade-off? -- Box 2.1 A Pareto approximation of the firm-size distribution -- Box 3.1 Ethiopian Airlines: A state-owned venture that relied on foreign know-how to grow -- Box 3.2 The Tata Group of India: A family-owned conglomerate expanding into different sectors --
Box 3.3 Secure ID, Nigeria: Entrepreneurship building on large-firm experience -- Box 3.4 Tbilvino, Georgia: The importance of managerial ability for resilience and growth -- Box 3.5 Wadi Group, Egypt: Product and market diversification as a growth strategy -- Box 3.6 Indorama Group, Indonesia: The importance of foreign expansion for growth in the chemical industry -- Box 3.7 Atasu Logistics, Kazakhstan: Moving from internal to external finance for growth -- Box 4.1 Privatization and foreign ownership do not guarantee contestable markets: The case of South Africa's steel industry --
Box 4.2 Severity and specificity analysis for constraints reported in World Bank Enterprise Surveys
Summary Economic and social progress requires a diverse ecosystem of firms that play complementary roles. This publication constitutes one of the most up-to-date assessments of how large firms are created in low- and middle-income countries and their role in development. It argues that large firms advance a range of development objectives in ways that other firms do not: large firms are more likely to innovate, export, and offer training and are more likely to adopt international standards of quality, among other contributions. Their particularities are closely associated with productivity advantages and translate into improved outcomes not only for their owners but also for their workers and for smaller enterprises in their value chains. The challenge for economic development, however, is that production does not reach economic scale in low- and middle-income countries. Why are large firms scarcer in developing countries? Drawing on a rare set of data from public and private sources, as well as proprietary data from the International Finance Corporation and case studies, this book shows that large firms are often born large-- or with the attributes of largeness. In other words, what is distinct about them is often in place from day one of their operations. To fill the "missing top" of the firm-size distribution with additional large firms, governments should support the creation of such firms by opening markets to greater competition. In low-income countries, this objective can be achieved through simple policy reorientation, such as breaking oligopolies, removing unnecessary restrictions to international trade and investment, and establishing strong rules to prevent the abuse of market power. Governments should also strive to ensure that private actors have the skills, technology, intelligence, infrastructure, and finance they need to create large ventures. Additionally, they should actively work to spread the benefits from production at scale across the largest possible number of market participants. This book seeks to bring frontier thinking and evidence on the role and origins of large firms to a wide range of readers, including academics, development practitioners and policy makers
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on April 03, 2021)
Subject Business enterprises -- Size -- Developing countries
Business enterprises -- Size
Economic policy
SUBJECT Developing countries -- Economic policy
Subject Developing countries
Form Electronic book
Author Hyland, Marie, author.
Karalashvili, Nona, author.
Keller, Jennifer, author.
Ragoussis, Alexandros, author.
Tran, Trang Thu, author
ISBN 9781464815584
1464815585