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Articles 1 - 30 of 49
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Women Managers And The Gender-Based Gap In Access To Education: Evidence From Firm-Level Data In Developing Countries, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Women Managers And The Gender-Based Gap In Access To Education: Evidence From Firm-Level Data In Developing Countries, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Mohammad Amin
A number of studies explore the differences in men and women’s labor market participation rates and wages. Some of these differences have been linked to gender disparities in education attainment and access. The present paper contributes to this literature by analyzing the relationship between the proclivity of a firm having a top woman manager and access to education among women relative to men in the country. We combine the literature on women’s careers in management, which has mostly focused on developed countries, with the development literature that has emphasized the importance of access to education. Using firm-level data for 73 …
Are Large Informal Firms More Productive Than The Small Informal Firms? Evidence From Firm-Level Surveys In Africa, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Are Large Informal Firms More Productive Than The Small Informal Firms? Evidence From Firm-Level Surveys In Africa, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Mohammad Amin
Using data for over 500 informal or unregistered firms in seven countries in Africa, this study explores how labor productivity varies between small and large informal firms. We find robust evidence that small informal firms have higher labor productivity than large informal firms. Thus, even though poor performance of informal firms is typically attributed to their small size vis-à-vis registered or formal sector firms, incremental increases in the size of informal firms does not necessarily imply a narrowing of the formal-informal firm productivity gap.
The Time Cost Of Documents To Trade, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
The Time Cost Of Documents To Trade, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Mohammad Amin
The paper shows that the number of documents required to export and import tend to increase the time cost of shipments. However, this relationship is far from simplistic, varying sharply in magnitude depending on the income level and the size of the country. Specifically, the increase in the time cost of increased documentation is much larger for countries that are relatively poor and large in size. One interpretation of this finding is that the relatively rich countries that have more resources and the relatively small countries that rely more on trade invest more in building efficient documentation systems. Hence, increased …
Online Appendix For: Does Mandating Non-Discrimination In Hiring Practices Influence Women’S Employment? Evidence Using Firm-Level Data, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Online Appendix For: Does Mandating Non-Discrimination In Hiring Practices Influence Women’S Employment? Evidence Using Firm-Level Data, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Mohammad Amin
This is the online Appendix for the paper titled "Does Mandating Non-discrimination in Hiring Practices Influence Women’s Employment? Evidence Using Firm-level Data" that is forthcoming in Feminist Economics.
Use Of Imported Inputs And The Cost Of Importing: Evidence Form Developing Countries, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Use Of Imported Inputs And The Cost Of Importing: Evidence Form Developing Countries, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Mohammad Amin
For a representative sample of manufacturing firms in 26 countries, the paper shows that changes in the cost of importing over time is significantly and negatively correlated with changes in the percentage of firm’s material inputs that are of foreign origin. Furthermore, we show that there may be a non-linear relationship between import costs and imports. These findings are important as recent studies point towards a significant positive effect of imported inputs on productivity and growth. We hope that the present paper inspires more work on the determinants of imported inputs usage especially in developing countries.
Female Vs. Male Top Manager Of Private Firms In Developing Countries: Implications For Country And Firm Characteristics, Mohammad Amin
Female Vs. Male Top Manager Of Private Firms In Developing Countries: Implications For Country And Firm Characteristics, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Gender disparity in various economic dimensions has prompted policy measures aimed at providing greater employment opportunities for women. However, greater employment may not solve the problem much if this is concentrated in low paying and vulnerable jobs such as jobs in informal sector. Hence, it becomes important to understand how women vs. men compare in high paying formal sector jobs such as top managers of private firms. Using data on private firms in 86 developing countries, this paper analyzes how firms with female vs. male managers differ in their structure and performance. Relationship between various country characteristics and the proportion …
The Relevance Of Firm-Size In The Informal Sector: Evidence From Developing Countries, Mohammad Amin
The Relevance Of Firm-Size In The Informal Sector: Evidence From Developing Countries, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Using newly collected on informal firms in 11 countries in Africa, we explore whether firm-size matters at all for the structure, conduct and performance of the firms. While firm-size is known to be an important attribute of the firms in the formal sector, it is not obvious what the relevance of firm-size is for the informal sector. Informal firms are small, many of them run alone by the owner, and have limited variation in size. Notwithstanding the limited variation in firm-size, our results show that firm-size is highly correlated with a number of firm characteristics such as job growth, labor …
Use Of Foreign Intermediate Inputs In Developing Countries: Determinants And Effects (Short Note), Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam, Po Yin Wong
Use Of Foreign Intermediate Inputs In Developing Countries: Determinants And Effects (Short Note), Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam, Po Yin Wong
Mohammad Amin
Theory suggests a number of channels through which use of foreign inputs could contribute to overall economic development and firm performance. However, empirical work on the use of foreign inputs, its determinants and effects is lacking. Using firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys on developing countries, this note highlights the extent to which firms rely on foreign inputs, how the reliance varies with country and firm characteristics and the impact of foreign inputs on firm productivity. Results show that the use of foreign inputs is common among private firms and especially so among the relatively large firms and firms in countries …
The Relevance Of Firm-Size For The Informal Sector, Mohammad Amin
The Relevance Of Firm-Size For The Informal Sector, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Using newly collected on informal firms in 11 countries in Africa, we explore whether firm-size matters at all for the structure, conduct and performance of the firms. While firm-size is known to be an important attribute of the firms in the formal sector, it is not obvious what the relevance of firm-size is for the informal sector. Informal firms are small, many of them run alone by the owner, and have limited variation in size. Notwithstanding the limited variation in firm-size, our results show that firm-size is highly correlated with a number of firm characteristics such as job growth, labor …
Imports Of Intermediate Inputs And Country Size, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Imports Of Intermediate Inputs And Country Size, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Mohammad Amin
The present paper analyzes the relationship between country size and the use of imported intermediate inputs by firms in 76 developing countries. Recent evidence indicates that the use of imported inputs can have a large positive effect on productivity and growth thus motivating a better understanding of the determinants of imported inputs. Our results confirm that relative to large countries, firms in small countries are both likely to use more imported inputs and a larger share of imported inputs in their total inputs. Interestingly, adjusting for the mean level of imports of inputs and exports of goods in our sample, …
Gender Based Differences In Managerial Experience: The Case Of Informal Firms In Rwanda, Mohammad Amin, Khrystyna Kushnir
Gender Based Differences In Managerial Experience: The Case Of Informal Firms In Rwanda, Mohammad Amin, Khrystyna Kushnir
Mohammad Amin
The paper contributes to the literature on gender-based disparity in human capital by extending existing results on educational attainment to the number of years of experience that female vs. male managers have among informal or unregistered firms. Using the case of Rwanda, results show that the number of years of experience for female managers is significantly lower equaling 80-88 percent of their male counterparts. We also find that this gender disparity is higher among the relatively older managers and among firms in the relatively less developed city of Butare compared with the more developed city of Kigali.
Do Retail Firms Favor Female Managers? Evidence From Survey Data In Developing Countries, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Do Retail Firms Favor Female Managers? Evidence From Survey Data In Developing Countries, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Mohammad Amin
Using firm-level data for 87 developing countries, the paper analyzes how the likelihood of a firm having female vs. male top manager varies across sectors. The service sector is often considered to be more favorable towards women compared with men vis-à-vis the manufacturing sector. While our results confirm a significantly higher presence of female managers in services vs. manufacturing, the result is entirely driven by the retail firms with little contribution from other service sectors such as wholesale, construction and other services. We also find that the higher presence of female managers in the retail sector vs. manufacturing is much …
Gender Disparity In Human Capital: Going Beyond Schooling, Mohammad Amin, Khrystyna Kushnir L.
Gender Disparity In Human Capital: Going Beyond Schooling, Mohammad Amin, Khrystyna Kushnir L.
Mohammad Amin
The paper contributes to the literature on gender-based disparity in human capital by extending existing results on educational attainment to the number of years of experience that top female and male managers have. For a sample of 71 developing countries, results show that the number of years of experience for female managers is significantly lower, equaling 83-86 percent that of their male counterparts. This gender-based difference is particularly large among young firms, but small an insignificant among older firms.
Gender Inequality And Growth: The Case Of Rich Vs. Poor Countries, Mohammad Amin, Veselin Kuntchev
Gender Inequality And Growth: The Case Of Rich Vs. Poor Countries, Mohammad Amin, Veselin Kuntchev
Mohammad Amin
Using cross-section data for over 120 countries, we explore the relationship between gender inequality and economic growth. We contribute to the existing literature in two important ways. First, we use a broad measure of gender inequality that goes well beyond gender inequality in education, the focus of most existing studies. Second, we allow for heterogeneity in the growth and gender inequality relationship across low and high-income countries. Our results confirm that greater gender inequality is associated with lower growth. However, this negative relationship holds among the low-income countries but not among high-income countries. Our findings have important implications for the …
The Female-Firm Under-Performance Hypothesis And Gender Disparity In The Laws, Mohammad Amin
The Female-Firm Under-Performance Hypothesis And Gender Disparity In The Laws, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Using firm-level data on developing countries, the present paper explores and extends the well-known female-firm under-performance hypothesis. Using firm-size as the measure of performance, we contribute to the literature in three important ways. First, in contrast to existing studies that focus on the gender of the owner(s), we focus on the gender of the top manager of the firm. Hence, a new dimension of female vs. male-firms is suggested. Second, we argue that the gender-based difference in firm-size in favor of men need not be uniform across countries. Specifically, we argue that it is likely to be larger in countries …
Flexible Work Schedule, Child Care And Female Employment In Developing Countries: Evidence Using Firm-Level Data, Mohammad Amin
Flexible Work Schedule, Child Care And Female Employment In Developing Countries: Evidence Using Firm-Level Data, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Using newly available data on whether a country gives additional legal rights or not for flexible or part-time work schedule to employees with minor children, we analyze the impact of such provision in the law on female employment. For a representative sample of manufacturing firms in 57 developing countries, we find that the stated provision in the law has a large positive effect on the employment of females. Specifically, on the conservative side, the provision in the law increases the proportion of females in the workforce by 7.7 percentage points, a large effect given that on average females constitute 32 …
Gender Disparity In Laws And Female Employment, Mohammad Amin
Gender Disparity In Laws And Female Employment, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
In a large sample of firms in 66 developing countries, it is shown that gender specific disparity in the laws favoring males over females tends to lower the employment of females relative to males at the firm level. However, this relationship between gender disparity in laws and employment is driven by small and medium firms, and it does not hold for the sample of large firms. However, the relationship holds equally in rich vs. poor countries, small vs. large cities within countries and among firms with and without female owners. We also confirm a sharp negative effect of gender disparity …
Is There More Corruption In Larger Countries? Evidence Using Firm-Level Data, Mohammad Amin
Is There More Corruption In Larger Countries? Evidence Using Firm-Level Data, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Existing studies show that the impact of country size on the level of corruption is sensitive to the dataset used and the sample of countries under study. The present paper contributes to the literature on country size and corruption by using newly available firm-level data on firm’s experience with corruption in 25 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Our results show that the level of corruption rises sharply with country size as measured by the total population of a country. Contrary to claims in the literature, we find no evidence that the corruption and country size relationship is stronger …
Does Country Size Matter For Tax Rates?, Mohammad Amin
Does Country Size Matter For Tax Rates?, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Repeated attempts at uncovering the impact of country size on various socio-economic factors have shown that country size doesn’t matter except for trade openness. The present paper takes another look at the relevance of country size. Using newly available macro as well as firm-level micro data on tax rates, the paper finds tax rates are more burdensome in the relatively larger countries. The finding is robust to a large number of controls, alternative specifications and estimation methods including the instrumental variables regression method. Further, we find some evidence suggesting that the strength of the relationship between tax rates and country …
Does Country Size Matter? (Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Does Country Size Matter? (Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
With the exception of trade openness, existing studies have failed to find any significant impact of country size on various social and economic variables. This note uses newly available firm-level and country-level data and shows that country size does matter with small countries performing better than large countries in areas such as trade facilitation, tax administration, burden of tax rates on private firms and corruption. The note also argues that the impact of country size on a variable of interest may not be uniform and it may depend on for example, how large the country is to begin with and …
Quality Of Tax Administration: How Relevant Is Country Size?, Mohammad Amin
Quality Of Tax Administration: How Relevant Is Country Size?, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Repeated attempts at uncovering the relevance of country size for various economic factors have produced discouraging results. The present paper sheds new light on the relevance of country size using micro or firm-level data on firms’ experience with the quality of tax administration, an important but neglected element of the business climate. We find that the quality of tax administration is significantly better for small compared with large countries. Instrumental variables regression method confirms that our finding is robust to various endogeneity concerns. We also find some evidence that the country size and tax administration relationship is non-linear, much stronger …
Education And The Structure Of Informal Firms In Latin America (Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Education And The Structure Of Informal Firms In Latin America (Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
A recent survey of unregistered or informal firms in Argentina and Peru shows that about 74 percent of the owners have at least secondary or higher education. This note compares firms by the education level of the owners to assess how education affects the structure, conduct and performance of informal firms. The results show a limited impact of education. Firm-efficiency as measured by sales per worker rises sharply with the level of education of the owner and the same holds for firm-size as measured by monthly sales or employment. Firms with relatively more educated owners are more likely to use …
Trade Facilitation And Country Size, Mohammad Amin, Jamal Ibrahim Haidar
Trade Facilitation And Country Size, Mohammad Amin, Jamal Ibrahim Haidar
Mohammad Amin
It is argued that compared with large countries, small countries rely more on trade and therefore they are more likely to adopt liberal trading policies. The present paper extends this idea beyond the conventional trade openness measures by analyzing the relationship between country size and the number of documents required to export and import, a measure of trade facilitation. Three important results follow. First, trade facilitation does improve as the country size becomes smaller; that is, small countries perform better than large countries in terms of trade facilitation. Second, the relationship between country size and trade facilitation is non-linear, much …
The Cost Of Registering Property: Does Legal Origin Matter?, Mohammad Amin, Jamal I. Haidar
The Cost Of Registering Property: Does Legal Origin Matter?, Mohammad Amin, Jamal I. Haidar
Mohammad Amin
There is a large literature that finds that common law countries perform better than civil law countries in various aspects of the institutional environment. The present paper extends these findings to another dimension of institutional quality - the cost of registering property. In a sample of 121 countries, we find that the cost of registering property is lower by 26 percent of the world average in common law compared with civil law countries, a result largely driven by differences in non-notary costs of registering property. We provide plausible explanations for these findings.
Labor Productivity, Firm-Size And Gender: The Case Of Informal Firms In Latin America (Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Labor Productivity, Firm-Size And Gender: The Case Of Informal Firms In Latin America (Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
A commonly held view is that female-owned businesses suffer from many disadvantages compared to male-owned businesses. These disadvantages lead in turn to relatively lower levels of efficiency and smaller firm-size among female-owned businesses—the female-owned firms under-performance hypothesis. Using data on unregistered firms in Argentina and Peru, the female-owned firms’ under-performance hypothesis is confirmed. The gender based difference in efficiency and firm-size holds within the full sample and no more than 25 percent to 30 percent of the difference can be explained by variations in firm characteristics. The gender based gap in performance also holds within various sub-samples, although the magnitude …
Efficiency, Firm-Size And Gender: The Case Of Informal Firms In Latin America, Mohammad Amin
Efficiency, Firm-Size And Gender: The Case Of Informal Firms In Latin America, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
The paper extends the female under-performance hypothesis to informal or unregistered firms in two developing countries, Argentina and Peru. Specifically, results show that for a sample of informal firms, average productivity of labor and firm-size measured by monthly sales and employment are smaller for female-owned compared with male-owned firms.
Comparing Informal Firms In Buenos Aires And Chaco (Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Comparing Informal Firms In Buenos Aires And Chaco (Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
This note highlights differences in the structure, conduct and performance of informal businesses in two regions of Argentina, Buenos Aires and Chaco. Firm-efficiency as measured by the average productivity of labor is much higher in Buenos Aires than Chaco. This difference is partly due to higher sales and partly due to lower employment in firms in Buenos Aires compared with Chaco. Relative to Buenos Aires, firms in the Chaco region are more likely to use machinery and vehicles in the production process and they also face larger seasonal fluctuations in sales. Firms are more likely to report various benefits from …
Gender And Informality In Latin America (Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Gender And Informality In Latin America (Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Recently collected data on informal or unregistered firms in Argentina and Peru show significant differences between male and female-owned firms in certain firm characteristics and performance measures. Compared with male-owned firms, female-owned firms are smaller in size as measured by total monthly sales and also less efficient as measured by the average productivity of labor. Female-owned firms are less likely to use equipments such as machines and vehicles, although this is not the reason for their lower efficiency. Some of the commonly held views including lower education among women entrepreneurs, fewer numbers of owners among firms that have a female …
Competition And Demographics In Large Indian Cities, Mohammad Amin
Competition And Demographics In Large Indian Cities, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Recent studies suggest that consumer-household attributes may be as important in determining the level of competition in certain markets as firm characteristics and the number of firms. However, evidence on which consumer-household attributes matter for competition is limited, especially for developing countries. Focusing on India’s retail sector, the present paper contributes to this literature by showing that the number of adult non-workers per household in the city, a proxy for shopping time opportunity cost, has a strong effect on competition between retailers. Policy implications of our findings in light of the ongoing dramatic reductions in non-workers in India are discussed.
Crime Against Informal Businesses In Africa: Natives Vs. Immigrants, Mohammad Amin
Crime Against Informal Businesses In Africa: Natives Vs. Immigrants, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
The literature on crime seeks to identify groups of agents based on their socio-economic-demographic characteristics that are more likely to be victims of crime than others. The present paper contributes to this literature by focusing on crime against informal businesses in Africa and highlighting how victimization rates vary between businesses owned by natives and immigrants. We find that immigrant-owned businesses are significantly more likely to be targeted by criminals than native-owned businesses. However, much of this difference is due to higher victimization rates for businesses owned by recent immigrants to the city. Businesses owned by immigrants that have spent about …