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Pathways Out of Poverty pp 193–214Cite as

The Firms Speak: What the World Business Environment Survey Tells Us about Constraints on Private Sector Development

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Abstract

What do active business managers view as their main obstacles to the operation and growth of their firms? What conditions are associated with a higher level of enterprise growth? Why do firms so frequently opt to function unofficially? What makes reforms so difficult, especially in countries with influential private firms? Is corruption less harmful to business operation when it is predictable?

This article is adapted from a larger volume, Voices of the Firm 2000: Investment Climate and Governance Findings of the World Business Environment Survey (WBES), by Geeta Batra, Daniel Kaufmann, and Andrew H. W. Stone (World Bank 2002). The WBES Steering Committee included the authors and Guy Pfeffermann, Homi Kharas, Shyam Khemani (later Joseph Battat), and Luke Haggarty. Partners included EBRD, IDB and Harvard CID. The work for this paper was supported by a grant from the Swiss Government, and by joint funding from FIAS, the Private Sector Advisory Department, the World Bank Institute, and the Innovation Marketplace.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Foreign Investment Advisory Service of the World Bank Private Sector Advisory Services Group, Honkong

    Geeta Batra (Senior private sector development specialist)

  2. Latin America Capacity Building and Learning at the World Bank Institute, USA

    Daniel Kaufmann (Director for global governance)

  3. Investment Climiate Unit of the World Bank’s Private Sector Advisory Services Department, USA

    Andrew H. W. Stone (Senior private sector development specialist)

Authors
  1. Geeta Batra
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  2. Daniel Kaufmann
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  3. Andrew H. W. Stone
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International and Comparative Labor, Cornell University, USA

    Gary S. Fields (Professor in the Department of Labor Econmics and chair) (Professor in the Department of Labor Econmics and chair)

  2. International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group, USA

    Guy Pfeffermann (Chief economist) (Chief economist)

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© 2003 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank

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Batra, G., Kaufmann, D., Stone, A.H.W. (2003). The Firms Speak: What the World Business Environment Survey Tells Us about Constraints on Private Sector Development. In: Fields, G.S., Pfeffermann, G. (eds) Pathways Out of Poverty. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0009-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0009-3_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-8213-5404-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0009-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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