Enterprise Survey 2012 - Lao PDR

Abstract
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This research was carried out in Lao PDR between May and October 2012 as a joint Enterprise Survey and Skills Toward Employment and Productivity (STEP) survey, and included a large panel component based on the 2009 data collection efforts.

The objective of Enterprise Surveys is to obtain feedback from businesses on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.

For Lao PDR 2012 study additional interviews were conducted in the following sectors: mining and quarrying, electricity, gas and water supply, financial intermediation, real estate, and education. The observations collected in these sectors were not used to compute indicators shown on the Enterprise Surveys website (www.enterprisesurveys.org) as they are not comparable to other countries surveyed.

Geographic coverage
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Vientiane Capital, Champasack, Luang Prabang, Luang Namtha, Khammouane, and Savannakhet.

Analysis unit
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The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment.The establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe
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The whole population, or universe of the study, is the non-agricultural economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the group classification of ISIC Revision 3.1: (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities-sectors.

In addition to the sectors common to the global methodology for the Enterprise Survey, additional interviews were conducted in the following sectors: Mining and Quarrying (group C), Electricity, gas and water supply (group E), Financial intermediation (group J), Real estate (group K), and Education (group M).

Kind of data
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Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure
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The sample for Lao PDR was selected using stratified random sampling. Three levels of stratification were used in this country: industry, establishment size, and region.

Industry stratification was designed in the way that follows: the universe was stratified into 23 manufacturing industries, 2 services industries; retail, and other services as defined in the sampling manual. Additional stratification took place in the following sectors: mining and quarrying (group C), electricity, gas and water supply (group E), financial intermediation (group J), real estate (group K), and education (group M).

Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition for the rollout: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (more than 99 employees). For stratification purposes, the number of employees was defined on the basis of reported permanent full-time workers. This seems to be an appropriate definition of the labor force since seasonal/casual/part-time employment is not a common practice, except in the sectors of construction and agriculture.

Regional stratification was defined in six regions: Vientiane Capital, Champasack, Luang Prabang, Luang Namtha, Khammouane, and Savannakhet.

One frame was used for Lao PDR. The sample frame used in Lao PDR was obtained from the "Preliminary Survey in the Business Sector" (2008), maintained by the National Statistic Centre, Department of Statistics under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Government of Lao PDR. This listing was updated by the Department of Statistics in 2012 as part of the implementation of this survey.

The enumerated establishments were then used as the frame for the selection of a sample with the aim of obtaining interviews at 380 establishments with five or more employees.

The quality of the frame was assessed at the onset of the project through calls to a random subset of firms and local contractor knowledge. The sample frame was not immune from the typical problems found in establishment surveys: positive rates of non-eligibility, repetition, non-existent units, etc. Due to response rate and ineligibility issues, additional sample had to be extracted by DCS and the World Bank in order to obtain enough eligible contacts and meet the sample targets.

Given the impact that non-eligible units included in the sample universe may have on the results, adjustments may be needed when computing the appropriate weights for individual observations. The percentage of confirmed non-eligible units as a proportion of the total number of sampled establishments contacted for the survey was 14% (116 out of 830 establishments).

Mode of data collection
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Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument
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Only one questionnaire was used for all sectors. This questionnaire had two versions: one for manufacturing and one for services firms. This questionnaire was also split into two sections with one containing the standard Enterprise Survey questions and the second containing the STEP skills, training, and education questions.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.

Cleaning operations
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Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate
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The number of contacted establishments per realized interview was 2.27. This number is the result of two factors: explicit refusals to participate in the survey, as reflected by the rate of rejection (which includes rejections of the screener and the main survey) and the quality of the sample frame, as represented by the presence of ineligible units. The number of rejections per contact was 0.043.

Item non-response was addressed by two strategies:
a- For sensitive questions that may generate negative reactions from the respondent, such as corruption or tax evasion, enumerators were instructed to collect the refusal to respond as a different option from don’t know.
b- Establishments with incomplete information were re-contacted in order to complete this information, whenever necessary.

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve strata-specific goals.

摘要
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本研究于2012年5月至10月在老挝人民民主共和国进行，是一项联合企业调查和就业与生产力技能（STEP）调查，基于2009年的数据收集工作，包含了一个大型面板组件。
企业调查的目的是从企业获取关于私营部门状况的反馈，并有助于构建企业数据面板，以便能够追踪随着时间的推移商业环境的变化，从而允许进行例如改革影响的评估。通过访谈制造业和服务业的企业，调查评估了私营部门增长的制约因素，并创建了具有统计学意义且国家间可比的商业环境指标。
对于2012年老挝的研究，还额外对以下行业进行了访谈：采矿和采石业、电力、燃气和水供应、金融中介、房地产业和教育培训业。这些行业的观察结果未用于计算企业调查网站上（www.enterprisesurveys.org）显示的指标，因为它们与其他调查国家的指标不可比。
地理覆盖范围
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万象市、沙湾拿吉、琅勃拉邦、琅南塔、占巴塞和萨万纳克。
分析单元
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本研究的主要抽样单元是机构。机构是进行商业活动和工业操作或提供服务的地方。一个公司可能由一个或多个机构组成。例如，一个啤酒厂可能有几个灌装厂和几个分销机构。为了进行本次调查，一个机构必须能够做出自己的财务决策，并拥有与公司分开的财务报表。机构还必须拥有自己的管理和对其工资单的控制。
总体
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研究的总体，即研究范围，是非农业经济。它包括：根据ISIC修订版3.1的分类组别中的所有制造业部门（组别D）、建筑部门（组别F）、服务业部门（组别G和H），以及运输、仓储和通信部门（组别I）。请注意，此定义排除了以下部门：金融中介（组别J）、房地产业和租赁活动（组别K，除子部门72，IT，该子部门已被纳入研究总体之外），以及所有公共或公用事业部门。
除了与企业调查全球方法论中常见的部门外，还额外对以下部门进行了访谈：采矿和采石业（组别C）、电力、燃气和水供应（组别E）、金融中介（组别J）、房地产业（组别K）和教育（组别M）。
数据类型
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样本调查数据 [ssd]
抽样程序
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老挝的样本是通过分层随机抽样选择的。在该国使用了三个分层级别：行业、机构规模和地区。
行业分层的设计方式如下：总体被分为23个制造业行业、2个服务业行业；零售和其他服务业，如抽样手册中定义。
在以下部门中进行了额外的分层：采矿和采石业（组别C）、电力、燃气和水供应（组别E）、金融中介（组别J）、房地产业（组别K）和教育（组别M）。
规模分层根据以下标准定义：小型（5至19名员工）、中型（20至99名员工）和大型（超过99名员工）。为了分层的目的，员工人数是根据报告的正式全职员工人数来定义的。这似乎是对劳动力的一个适当的定义，因为季节性/临时/兼职就业并不是常见的做法，除了建筑和农业部门。
地区分层被定义为六个地区：万象市、沙湾拿吉、琅勃拉邦、琅南塔、占巴塞和萨万纳克。
老挝使用了一个框架。在老挝使用的样本框架是从老挝人民民主共和国计划与投资部统计局的国家统计局维护的“商业部门初步调查”（2008年）中获得的。该列表由统计局在2012年作为实施本调查的一部分进行了更新。
然后使用列举的机构作为抽样框架，目的是在380个拥有五名或更多员工的机构中获取访谈。
在项目开始时，通过随机子集企业的电话和当地承包商的知识来评估框架的质量。样本框架不可避免地存在机构调查中常见的典型问题：非合格单位的正响应率、重复、不存在单位等。由于响应率和不合格问题，DCS和世界银行不得不提取额外的样本，以便获得足够的合格联系人和达到样本目标。
鉴于样本总体中包含的非合格单位可能对结果产生的影响，在计算单个观察结果的适当权重时可能需要进行调整。已确认的非合格单位百分比占总样本机构联系总数的14%（830家机构中的116家）。
数据收集方式
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面对面 [f2f]
研究工具
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所有部门仅使用了一份问卷。该问卷有两个版本：一个用于制造业企业，一个用于服务业企业。该问卷还分为两个部分，其中一部分包含标准企业调查问题，另一部分包含STEP技能、培训和教育活动问题。
标准企业调查主题包括企业特征、性别参与、融资渠道、年销售额、投入/劳动力成本、劳动力构成、贿赂、许可、基础设施、贸易、犯罪、竞争、产能利用率、土地和许可、税收、非正式性、商业与政府关系、创新和技术、绩效指标。超过90%的问题客观地确定了国家商业环境的特征。其余问题评估了调查受访者对阻碍企业增长和绩效的看法。
数据清理操作
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数据录入和质量控制由承包商实施，数据以批量（通常是10%、50%和100%）的形式交付给世界银行。这些数据交付被检查逻辑一致性、超出范围的值、跳过模式以及重复条目。问题由世界银行标记并由实施承包商通过数据检查、回访和重新访问机构进行纠正。
响应率
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每个实现访谈的接触机构数量为2.27。这个数字是两个因素的结果：明确拒绝参与调查，如反映在拒绝率（包括筛选器和主要调查的拒绝）中，以及样本框架的质量，如通过不合格单位的出现来表示。每个接触点的拒绝次数为0.043。
通过两种策略解决了项目非响应问题：
a- 对于可能引起受访者负面反应的敏感问题，例如腐败或逃税，调查员被指示将拒绝回答作为一个不同于不知道的不同选项来收集。
b- 对于信息不完整的机构，在必要时重新联系以完成这些信息。
通过最大程度地联系最初选定的访谈机构来解决调查非响应问题。在建议替换机构（具有相似分层特征）进行访谈之前，试图在每周的不同时间/日子联系机构进行访谈。尽管发生了调查非响应，但进行了替换，以期实现分层特定的目标。