Revisiting the Impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES Program on Firms' Formalization Rates

A recent survey of rigorous impact evaluations of programs to help small and medium-size firms to formalize indicates that the programs do not seem to work for most informal firms. One of the few exceptions finds large effects of a tax simplificati...

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Main Author:	Piza, Caio
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2016
Subjects:	METHODS MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH FIRMS TIME RESULTS RESEARCH WORKING PAPERS VALIDITY EVALUATION METHODS AGE INFORMATION ENTREPRENEURS RESEARCHERS SME DEVELOPMENT EFFECTS SIZE BANDWIDTHS SCENARIO RETAIL TRADE MEASURES OPEN ACCESS RESULT TAXATION WEIGHT ESTIMATING SECURITY BUSINESS EVALUATION BANDWIDTH COMMERCIAL BANKS TESTS PERFORMANCE INDICATORS PERFORMANCE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT LICENSE PROFIT SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM ESTIMATES FIRM SMALL FIRMS INDICATORS RESEARCH PROFITS ENTERPRISES CREDIT LINES PERFORMANCES EXPERIMENTAL IMPACT EVALUATION MICROENTERPRISES SME
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/03/26078745/revisiting-impact-brazilian-simples-program-firms-formalization-rates http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24147

id	okr-10986-24147
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-241472021-04-23T14:04:19Z Revisiting the Impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES Program on Firms' Formalization Rates Piza, Caio METHODS MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH FIRMS TIME RESULTS RESEARCH WORKING PAPERS VALIDITY EVALUATION METHODS AGE INFORMATION ENTREPRENEURS RESEARCHERS SME DEVELOPMENT EFFECTS SIZE BANDWIDTHS SCENARIO RETAIL TRADE MEASURES OPEN ACCESS RESULT TAXATION WEIGHT ESTIMATING SECURITY BUSINESS EVALUATION BANDWIDTH COMMERCIAL BANKS TESTS PERFORMANCE INDICATORS PERFORMANCE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT LICENSE PROFIT SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM ESTIMATES FIRM SMALL FIRMS INDICATORS RESEARCH PROFITS ENTERPRISES CREDIT LINES PERFORMANCES EXPERIMENTAL IMPACT EVALUATION MICROENTERPRISES SME A recent survey of rigorous impact evaluations of programs to help small and medium-size firms to formalize indicates that the programs do not seem to work for most informal firms. One of the few exceptions finds large effects of a tax simplification program in Brazil called SIMPLES on firms' formalization rates and performance indicators. Using the same data set but a different identification strategy, another study concludes that the program had limited effect on formalization rates. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it revisits the two studies to reconcile their conflicting conclusions. Second, it investigates the validity of the identification strategy of both studies. The findings suggest that the conflicting results between the two studies are caused by the dates each used to identify when the program was put into effect. A robustness check indicates that data heaping and seasonality around November cast doubts on the identification strategy used in both studies to estimate the effect of this particular program. 2016-04-26T16:13:58Z 2016-04-26T16:13:58Z 2016-03 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/03/26078745/revisiting-impact-brazilian-simples-program-firms-formalization-rates http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24147 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7605 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Latin America & Caribbean Brazil
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	METHODS MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH FIRMS TIME RESULTS RESEARCH WORKING PAPERS VALIDITY EVALUATION METHODS AGE INFORMATION ENTREPRENEURS RESEARCHERS SME DEVELOPMENT EFFECTS SIZE BANDWIDTHS SCENARIO RETAIL TRADE MEASURES OPEN ACCESS RESULT TAXATION WEIGHT ESTIMATING SECURITY BUSINESS EVALUATION BANDWIDTH COMMERCIAL BANKS TESTS PERFORMANCE INDICATORS PERFORMANCE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT LICENSE PROFIT SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM ESTIMATES FIRM SMALL FIRMS INDICATORS RESEARCH PROFITS ENTERPRISES CREDIT LINES PERFORMANCES EXPERIMENTAL IMPACT EVALUATION MICROENTERPRISES SME
spellingShingle	METHODS MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH FIRMS TIME RESULTS RESEARCH WORKING PAPERS VALIDITY EVALUATION METHODS AGE INFORMATION ENTREPRENEURS RESEARCHERS SME DEVELOPMENT EFFECTS SIZE BANDWIDTHS SCENARIO RETAIL TRADE MEASURES OPEN ACCESS RESULT TAXATION WEIGHT ESTIMATING SECURITY BUSINESS EVALUATION BANDWIDTH COMMERCIAL BANKS TESTS PERFORMANCE INDICATORS PERFORMANCE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT LICENSE PROFIT SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM ESTIMATES FIRM SMALL FIRMS INDICATORS RESEARCH PROFITS ENTERPRISES CREDIT LINES PERFORMANCES EXPERIMENTAL IMPACT EVALUATION MICROENTERPRISES SME Piza, Caio Revisiting the Impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES Program on Firms' Formalization Rates
geographic_facet	Latin America & Caribbean Brazil
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7605
description	A recent survey of rigorous impact evaluations of programs to help small and medium-size firms to formalize indicates that the programs do not seem to work for most informal firms. One of the few exceptions finds large effects of a tax simplification program in Brazil called SIMPLES on firms' formalization rates and performance indicators. Using the same data set but a different identification strategy, another study concludes that the program had limited effect on formalization rates. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it revisits the two studies to reconcile their conflicting conclusions. Second, it investigates the validity of the identification strategy of both studies. The findings suggest that the conflicting results between the two studies are caused by the dates each used to identify when the program was put into effect. A robustness check indicates that data heaping and seasonality around November cast doubts on the identification strategy used in both studies to estimate the effect of this particular program.
format	Working Paper
author	Piza, Caio
author_facet	Piza, Caio
author_sort	Piza, Caio
title	Revisiting the Impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES Program on Firms' Formalization Rates
title_short	Revisiting the Impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES Program on Firms' Formalization Rates
title_full	Revisiting the Impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES Program on Firms' Formalization Rates
title_fullStr	Revisiting the Impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES Program on Firms' Formalization Rates
title_full_unstemmed	Revisiting the Impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES Program on Firms' Formalization Rates
title_sort	revisiting the impact of the brazilian simples program on firms' formalization rates
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2016
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/03/26078745/revisiting-impact-brazilian-simples-program-firms-formalization-rates http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24147
_version_	1764455772534603776

Revisiting the Impact of the Brazilian SIMPLES Program on Firms' Formalization Rates

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