How should the government bring small firms into the formal system? Experimental evidence from Malawi

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Campos, Francisco; Goldstein, Markus; McKenzie, David
• 署名单位: The World Bank
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.103045
• 发表日期: 2023
• 关键词: informality; Business registration; tax; GOVERNMENT; Financial access; Small enterprises

摘要

Governments seek to reduce pervasive firm informality for multiple reasons: taxes, firm growth, rule of law, and information. We conducted a randomized experiment in Malawi to test three alternatives to achieving these goals: a) helping firms obtain a business registration certificate that offers formal market access but imposes no tax obligations; b) helping firms obtain both business and tax registration; and c) supplementing business registration with a bank information session. We find incredibly high demand for obtaining a formal status that is separate from tax obligations, and very low take-up of tax registration. Business registration alone has no impact on formal market access or firm performance. However, combining registration assistance with the bank in-formation session increases firm sales by 20 percent and profits by 15 percent. The results highlight the ad-vantages of separating business and tax registration, but also the need to help firms benefit from their new formal status.