Business Registration in Malawi Experimental Data and Replication Files 2011-2015 - Malawi

Abstract
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We conduct a randomized experiment in Malawi to test three alternative approaches to formalizing firms: a) assisting firms to obtain a business registration certificate that offers access to formal markets but imposes no tax obligations; b) assisting firms to obtain both this business registration and tax registration; and c) supplementing the assistance to obtain business registration with a bank information session intended to help firms utilize one of the key potential benefits of formalizing. This dataset consists of a baseline, four rounds of follow-up surveys, administrative data, and replication files for replicating the results of the paper "How should the government bring small firms into the formal system? Experimental evidence from Malawi"

Geographic coverage
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We target firms in urban Lilongwe and Blantyre, the major commercial cities in Malawi. At the end of 2011, we listed over 100 business centers - that is, concentrations of firms including industrial parks, markets, streets with shops, set of workshops, etc. - and randomly sampled 46 of these business centers (23 in each city) to list all businesses operating within these areas.

Analysis unit
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Microenterprise

Kind of data
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Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure
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In this study we target the informal micro and small enterprises that are likely to be able to benefit the most from business registration, and that the government has said would be their first group of interest for a future road-show on business registration. We target firms in urban Lilongwe and Blantyre, the major commercial cities in Malawi. At the end of 2011, we listed over 100 business centers - that is, concentrations of firms including industrial parks, markets, streets with shops, set of workshops, etc. - and randomly sampled 46 of these business centers (23 in each city) to list all businesses operating within these areas. Through this process we listed 7,603 enterprises, 85 percent of which were not registered at the DRG. With this process, we excluded from the sample household-based enterprises.

To draw the sample for the baseline, we stratified the listing data by location and gender of the business owner and identified 3,600 firms that complied with one of the following criteria: (i) had at least one worker contracted outside of family members and business owners, (ii) were operating in a fixed location with more than one person working in the business, (iii) were at the 25th percentile of revenues or above. Through this process, we completed a detailed baseline survey for 3,002 informal firms, of which 1,195 were female-owned and 1,494 were from Lilongwe.

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

Research instrument
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Baseline questionnaire and four follow-up questionnaires attached

摘要
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本项研究在马拉维进行了一项随机实验，旨在测试三种企业正规化的替代方法：a) 协助企业获取营业执照，使其能够进入正规市场，但无需承担任何税收义务；b) 协助企业同时获取营业执照和税务登记；以及 c) 在协助企业获取营业执照的同时，补充银行信息会话，旨在帮助企业利用正规化过程中的关键潜在利益。该数据集包括基线调查、四轮后续调查、行政数据和论文《政府应如何将小型企业纳入正规体系？来自马拉维的实验证据》结果复制的文件。
地理覆盖范围
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本研究旨在针对马拉维的两个主要商业城市——城市利隆圭和布兰太尔的民营企业。截至2011年底，我们列出了超过100个商业中心——即包括工业园区、市场、商店街道、一系列车间等企业集中的区域——并随机抽取了其中的46个商业中心（每个城市23个）以列出这些区域内运营的所有企业。
分析单元
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微型企业
数据类型
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样本调查数据 [ssd]
抽样程序
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在本研究中，我们针对那些可能从企业登记中获得最大利益的不正规微型和小型企业，这些企业也是政府表示将作为未来企业登记推广活动的首批关注对象。我们针对马拉维的两个主要商业城市——城市利隆圭和布兰太尔的企业。截至2011年底，我们列出了超过100个商业中心——即包括工业园区、市场、商店街道、一系列车间等企业集中的区域——并随机抽取了其中的46个商业中心（每个城市23个）以列出这些区域内运营的所有企业。通过这一过程，我们列出了7,603家企业，其中85％的企业在DRG（可能指登记注册机构）未注册。在此过程中，我们排除了基于家庭的企业的样本。
为了抽取基线样本，我们根据地理位置和业主的性别对列表数据进行了分层，并确定了3,600家企业符合以下标准之一：（i）至少有一名非家庭成员和业主的工人；（ii）在固定地点运营，且业务中有超过一人工作；（iii）收入位于第25百分位数或以上。通过这一过程，我们对3,002家非正规企业进行了详细的基线调查，其中1,195家由女性拥有，1,494家来自利隆圭。
数据收集方式
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面对面 [f2f]
研究工具
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基线问卷和四轮后续问卷附件