Deconstructing the Missing Middle

• Tác giả: Roberto N Fattal Jaef
• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 818.3 American miscellaneous writings in English
• Thông tin xuất bản: World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022
• Bộ sưu tập: Tài liệu truy cập mở
• ID: 302390
• Chủ đề: 1. ESTABLISHMENT CONCENSUS; 2. FIRM SIZE DISTRIBUTION; 3. INFORMALITY; 4. MARKET DISTORTION; 5. MISSING MIDDLE

Tóm tắt

This paper characterizes the firm size distribution by exploiting establishment-level censuses covering both formal and informal firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper finds a "missing middle" in the employment-based size distribution of firms in four Sub-Saharan African countries. This "missing middle" hinges on the inclusion of informal firms, and it is not explained by state- or foreign-owned firms at the top of the size distribution, nor does it emerge from the size distribution of entrants. The paper reconciles these empirical results with a model of firm dynamics with endogenous informality and shows that calibrated values of entry barriers and productivity-dependent idiosyncratic distortions generate a "missing middle" that is consistent with its underlying drivers in the data.