Short-Term Impacts of Formalization Assistance and a Bank Information Session on Business Registration and Access to Finance in Malawi
Despite regulatory efforts designed to make it easier for firms to formalize, informality remains extremely high among firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. In most of the region, business registration in a national registry is separate from tax registratio...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/01/23922000/short-term-impacts-formalization-assistance-bank-information-session-business-registration-access-finance-malawi http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23653 |
| id |
okr-10986-23653 |
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| recordtype |
oai_dc |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
ACCESS TO BANK ACCOUNTS ACCESS TO CREDIT ACCESS TO EXTERNAL FINANCE ACCESS TO FINANCE ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES ACCESS TO INSURANCE ACCESS TO MARKETS ACCESS TO SAVINGS ACCOUNT ACCOUNT USAGE ACCOUNTS ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS BANK ACCESS BANK ACCOUNT BANK ACCOUNTS BANK LOAN BANK LOANS BANKS BILLS BORROWING BRIBE BUSINESS ACTIVITIES BUSINESS CENTERS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES BUSINESS ENABLING BUSINESS ENABLING ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS EXPENSES BUSINESS FACILITATION BUSINESS FINANCES BUSINESS INFORMATION BUSINESS LOAN BUSINESS OWNER BUSINESS OWNERS BUSINESS PERFORMANCE BUSINESS PLAN BUSINESS PURPOSES BUSINESS REGISTRATION BUSINESS RESOURCES BUSINESS TRAINING BUSINESSES CASH DEPOSITS CC CERTIFICATE CERTIFICATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE COLLATERAL CONTACT INFORMATION COST SAVINGS CREDIT ASSOCIATION DEBT OUTSTANDING DEPRECIATION DIRECT COSTS EARNINGS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC GROWTH EDUCATION LEVELS ELECTRICITY ENABLING ENVIRONMENT ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT ENTREPRENEUR ENTREPRENEURS EXCHANGE RATE FARM ENTERPRISES FEDERAL TAXES FEMALE BUSINESS FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS FINANCIAL ACCESS FINANCIAL INSTITUTION FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FINANCIAL LITERACY FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE FINANCIAL PRODUCTS FINANCIAL SERVICES FINANCING NEED FIXED ASSETS FORMAL BANK FORMAL FINANCIAL SECTOR FORMAL SAVINGS GENDER GENDER DIFFERENCE GENDER EQUALITY GENDER GAP GENDER GAPS GREATER ACCESS HARDWARE HOUSEHOLD FINANCES HUMAN RESOURCES IDENTIFICATION NUMBER IMPACT EVALUATION INCOME TAX INDIVIDUAL ENTREPRENEURS INFORMAL ECONOMY INFORMAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS INNOVATION INNOVATIONS INSPECTION INSPECTIONS INTEREST RATE INTERNATIONAL BANK INTERNATIONAL FINANCE LACK OF ACCESS LICENSE LICENSES MANUFACTURING MIDDLEMAN MINIMUM BALANCE NEW BUSINESS NEW PRODUCTS ONE-STOP SHOP OPEN ACCESS OUTREACH OUTSTANDING DEBT PHOTO PRIVATE ENTERPRISE PRIVATE SECTOR PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PROCUREMENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROTOCOL RECEIPTS REGISTRATION APPLICATION REGISTRATION OF BUSINESS REGISTRATION PROCESS REGISTRATION PROCESSES REGISTRY REPORTING RESULT RESULTS SALES SAVINGS ACCOUNTS SAVINGS PRODUCT SELLING SMALL BUSINESS SMALL ENTERPRISES SUBSTITUTES TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT TERM CREDIT TRANSACTION TRANSACTION COSTS TURNAROUND TIME VERIFICATION WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT |
| spellingShingle |
ACCESS TO BANK ACCOUNTS ACCESS TO CREDIT ACCESS TO EXTERNAL FINANCE ACCESS TO FINANCE ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES ACCESS TO INSURANCE ACCESS TO MARKETS ACCESS TO SAVINGS ACCOUNT ACCOUNT USAGE ACCOUNTS ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS BANK ACCESS BANK ACCOUNT BANK ACCOUNTS BANK LOAN BANK LOANS BANKS BILLS BORROWING BRIBE BUSINESS ACTIVITIES BUSINESS CENTERS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES BUSINESS ENABLING BUSINESS ENABLING ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS EXPENSES BUSINESS FACILITATION BUSINESS FINANCES BUSINESS INFORMATION BUSINESS LOAN BUSINESS OWNER BUSINESS OWNERS BUSINESS PERFORMANCE BUSINESS PLAN BUSINESS PURPOSES BUSINESS REGISTRATION BUSINESS RESOURCES BUSINESS TRAINING BUSINESSES CASH DEPOSITS CC CERTIFICATE CERTIFICATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE COLLATERAL CONTACT INFORMATION COST SAVINGS CREDIT ASSOCIATION DEBT OUTSTANDING DEPRECIATION DIRECT COSTS EARNINGS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC GROWTH EDUCATION LEVELS ELECTRICITY ENABLING ENVIRONMENT ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT ENTREPRENEUR ENTREPRENEURS EXCHANGE RATE FARM ENTERPRISES FEDERAL TAXES FEMALE BUSINESS FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS FINANCIAL ACCESS FINANCIAL INSTITUTION FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FINANCIAL LITERACY FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE FINANCIAL PRODUCTS FINANCIAL SERVICES FINANCING NEED FIXED ASSETS FORMAL BANK FORMAL FINANCIAL SECTOR FORMAL SAVINGS GENDER GENDER DIFFERENCE GENDER EQUALITY GENDER GAP GENDER GAPS GREATER ACCESS HARDWARE HOUSEHOLD FINANCES HUMAN RESOURCES IDENTIFICATION NUMBER IMPACT EVALUATION INCOME TAX INDIVIDUAL ENTREPRENEURS INFORMAL ECONOMY INFORMAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS INNOVATION INNOVATIONS INSPECTION INSPECTIONS INTEREST RATE INTERNATIONAL BANK INTERNATIONAL FINANCE LACK OF ACCESS LICENSE LICENSES MANUFACTURING MIDDLEMAN MINIMUM BALANCE NEW BUSINESS NEW PRODUCTS ONE-STOP SHOP OPEN ACCESS OUTREACH OUTSTANDING DEBT PHOTO PRIVATE ENTERPRISE PRIVATE SECTOR PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PROCUREMENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROTOCOL RECEIPTS REGISTRATION APPLICATION REGISTRATION OF BUSINESS REGISTRATION PROCESS REGISTRATION PROCESSES REGISTRY REPORTING RESULT RESULTS SALES SAVINGS ACCOUNTS SAVINGS PRODUCT SELLING SMALL BUSINESS SMALL ENTERPRISES SUBSTITUTES TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT TERM CREDIT TRANSACTION TRANSACTION COSTS TURNAROUND TIME VERIFICATION WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT Campos, Francisco Goldstein, Markus McKenzie, David Short-Term Impacts of Formalization Assistance and a Bank Information Session on Business Registration and Access to Finance in Malawi |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Malawi |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7183 |
| description |
Despite regulatory efforts designed to
make it easier for firms to formalize, informality remains
extremely high among firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. In most of
the region, business registration in a national registry is
separate from tax registration. This paper provides initial
results from an experiment in Malawi that randomly allocated
firms into a control group and three treatment groups: a) a
group offered assistance for costless business registration;
b) a group offered assistance with costless business
registration and (separate) tax registration; and c) a group
offered assistance for costless business registration along
with an information session at a bank that ended with the
offer of business bank accounts. The study finds that all
three treatments had extremely large impacts on business
registration, with 75 percent of those offered assistance
receiving a business registration certificate. The findings
offer a cost-effective way of getting firms to formalize in
this dimension. However, in common with other studies,
information and assistance has a limited impact on tax
registration. The paper measures the short-term impacts of
formalization on financial access and usage. Business
registration alone has no impact for either men or women on
bank account usage, savings, or credit. However, the
combination of formalization assistance and the bank
information session results in significant impacts on having
a business bank account, financial practices, savings, and
use of complementary financial products. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Campos, Francisco Goldstein, Markus McKenzie, David |
| author_facet |
Campos, Francisco Goldstein, Markus McKenzie, David |
| author_sort |
Campos, Francisco |
| title |
Short-Term Impacts of Formalization Assistance and a Bank Information Session on Business Registration and Access to Finance in Malawi |
| title_short |
Short-Term Impacts of Formalization Assistance and a Bank Information Session on Business Registration and Access to Finance in Malawi |
| title_full |
Short-Term Impacts of Formalization Assistance and a Bank Information Session on Business Registration and Access to Finance in Malawi |
| title_fullStr |
Short-Term Impacts of Formalization Assistance and a Bank Information Session on Business Registration and Access to Finance in Malawi |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Short-Term Impacts of Formalization Assistance and a Bank Information Session on Business Registration and Access to Finance in Malawi |
| title_sort |
short-term impacts of formalization assistance and a bank information session on business registration and access to finance in malawi |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/01/23922000/short-term-impacts-formalization-assistance-bank-information-session-business-registration-access-finance-malawi http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23653 |
| _version_ |
1764454444418727936 |
| spelling |
okr-10986-236532021-04-23T14:04:16Z Short-Term Impacts of Formalization Assistance and a Bank Information Session on Business Registration and Access to Finance in Malawi Campos, Francisco Goldstein, Markus McKenzie, David ACCESS TO BANK ACCOUNTS ACCESS TO CREDIT ACCESS TO EXTERNAL FINANCE ACCESS TO FINANCE ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES ACCESS TO INSURANCE ACCESS TO MARKETS ACCESS TO SAVINGS ACCOUNT ACCOUNT USAGE ACCOUNTS ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS BANK ACCESS BANK ACCOUNT BANK ACCOUNTS BANK LOAN BANK LOANS BANKS BILLS BORROWING BRIBE BUSINESS ACTIVITIES BUSINESS CENTERS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES BUSINESS ENABLING BUSINESS ENABLING ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS EXPENSES BUSINESS FACILITATION BUSINESS FINANCES BUSINESS INFORMATION BUSINESS LOAN BUSINESS OWNER BUSINESS OWNERS BUSINESS PERFORMANCE BUSINESS PLAN BUSINESS PURPOSES BUSINESS REGISTRATION BUSINESS RESOURCES BUSINESS TRAINING BUSINESSES CASH DEPOSITS CC CERTIFICATE CERTIFICATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE COLLATERAL CONTACT INFORMATION COST SAVINGS CREDIT ASSOCIATION DEBT OUTSTANDING DEPRECIATION DIRECT COSTS EARNINGS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC GROWTH EDUCATION LEVELS ELECTRICITY ENABLING ENVIRONMENT ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT ENTREPRENEUR ENTREPRENEURS EXCHANGE RATE FARM ENTERPRISES FEDERAL TAXES FEMALE BUSINESS FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS FINANCIAL ACCESS FINANCIAL INSTITUTION FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FINANCIAL LITERACY FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE FINANCIAL PRODUCTS FINANCIAL SERVICES FINANCING NEED FIXED ASSETS FORMAL BANK FORMAL FINANCIAL SECTOR FORMAL SAVINGS GENDER GENDER DIFFERENCE GENDER EQUALITY GENDER GAP GENDER GAPS GREATER ACCESS HARDWARE HOUSEHOLD FINANCES HUMAN RESOURCES IDENTIFICATION NUMBER IMPACT EVALUATION INCOME TAX INDIVIDUAL ENTREPRENEURS INFORMAL ECONOMY INFORMAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS INNOVATION INNOVATIONS INSPECTION INSPECTIONS INTEREST RATE INTERNATIONAL BANK INTERNATIONAL FINANCE LACK OF ACCESS LICENSE LICENSES MANUFACTURING MIDDLEMAN MINIMUM BALANCE NEW BUSINESS NEW PRODUCTS ONE-STOP SHOP OPEN ACCESS OUTREACH OUTSTANDING DEBT PHOTO PRIVATE ENTERPRISE PRIVATE SECTOR PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PROCUREMENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROTOCOL RECEIPTS REGISTRATION APPLICATION REGISTRATION OF BUSINESS REGISTRATION PROCESS REGISTRATION PROCESSES REGISTRY REPORTING RESULT RESULTS SALES SAVINGS ACCOUNTS SAVINGS PRODUCT SELLING SMALL BUSINESS SMALL ENTERPRISES SUBSTITUTES TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT TERM CREDIT TRANSACTION TRANSACTION COSTS TURNAROUND TIME VERIFICATION WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT Despite regulatory efforts designed to make it easier for firms to formalize, informality remains extremely high among firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. In most of the region, business registration in a national registry is separate from tax registration. This paper provides initial results from an experiment in Malawi that randomly allocated firms into a control group and three treatment groups: a) a group offered assistance for costless business registration; b) a group offered assistance with costless business registration and (separate) tax registration; and c) a group offered assistance for costless business registration along with an information session at a bank that ended with the offer of business bank accounts. The study finds that all three treatments had extremely large impacts on business registration, with 75 percent of those offered assistance receiving a business registration certificate. The findings offer a cost-effective way of getting firms to formalize in this dimension. However, in common with other studies, information and assistance has a limited impact on tax registration. The paper measures the short-term impacts of formalization on financial access and usage. Business registration alone has no impact for either men or women on bank account usage, savings, or credit. However, the combination of formalization assistance and the bank information session results in significant impacts on having a business bank account, financial practices, savings, and use of complementary financial products. 2016-01-14T19:17:55Z 2016-01-14T19:17:55Z 2015-01 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/01/23922000/short-term-impacts-formalization-assistance-bank-information-session-business-registration-access-finance-malawi http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23653 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7183 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Africa Malawi |