Surviving Firms of the Syrian Arab Republic : A Rapid Assessment

This paper details the results from the first comprehensive survey of private firms across major urban areas in the Syrian Arab Republic -- including Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Latakia, and Damascus -- since the conflict began in 2011. This builds on the...

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Main Authors: Salmon, Kinley, Assaf, Nabila, Francis, David
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/564631522691841379/Surviving-firms-of-the-Syrian-Arab-Republic-a-rapid-assessment
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29610
id okr-10986-29610
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-296102021-06-08T14:42:45Z Surviving Firms of the Syrian Arab Republic : A Rapid Assessment Salmon, Kinley Assaf, Nabila Francis, David FIRM DEATH ENTERPRISE SURVEY CONFLICT SURVIVAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT ACCESS TO FINANCE ACCESS TO SERVICES WATER SUPPLY ACCESS TO WATER URBAN UTILITIES SUPPLY CHAINS FIRM EXIT FIRM PRODUCTIVITY COMPETITIVENESS MIGRATION This paper details the results from the first comprehensive survey of private firms across major urban areas in the Syrian Arab Republic -- including Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Latakia, and Damascus -- since the conflict began in 2011. This builds on the World Bank's Enterprise Survey from 2009 and attempts to survey each of the 508 firms from 2009 again. The survey highlights the major challenges facing firms in Syria today, such as access to electricity, fuel, and water. Yet, loss of workers, managers, and supply chain relationships are also notably severe. Rebuilding the social and human capital of Syria may be even more difficult than the bricks and mortar. The paper also identifies the ways firms have been affected in their prices, sales, supply chains, taxation, and costs as well as how they have adapted in financing and employment. These constraints and impacts are also analyzed at the subnational level and across sectors. Firms in Aleppo stand out for their uniquely difficult challenges and responses that are sometimes at odds with the rest of the country. Finally, the paper analyzes firm exit from 2009 to 2017 and finds that higher productivity firms from 2009 were more likely to survive, except in Aleppo where the reverse holds. The paper hypothesizes that productive firms facing the particularly severe destruction in Aleppo may have made a different calculation compared with productive firms elsewhere: to use their capabilities to leave rather than to use their capabilities to weather the storm. 2018-04-03T15:54:51Z 2018-04-03T15:54:51Z 2018-04 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/564631522691841379/Surviving-firms-of-the-Syrian-Arab-Republic-a-rapid-assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29610 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8397 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 Middle East and North Africa Syrian Arab Republic
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic FIRM DEATH
ENTERPRISE SURVEY
CONFLICT
SURVIVAL
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT
ACCESS TO FINANCE
ACCESS TO SERVICES
WATER SUPPLY
ACCESS TO WATER
URBAN UTILITIES
SUPPLY CHAINS
FIRM EXIT
FIRM PRODUCTIVITY
COMPETITIVENESS
MIGRATION
spellingShingle FIRM DEATH
ENTERPRISE SURVEY
CONFLICT
SURVIVAL
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT
ACCESS TO FINANCE
ACCESS TO SERVICES
WATER SUPPLY
ACCESS TO WATER
URBAN UTILITIES
SUPPLY CHAINS
FIRM EXIT
FIRM PRODUCTIVITY
COMPETITIVENESS
MIGRATION
Salmon, Kinley
Assaf, Nabila
Francis, David
Surviving Firms of the Syrian Arab Republic : A Rapid Assessment
geographic_facet Middle East and North Africa
Syrian Arab Republic
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8397
description This paper details the results from the first comprehensive survey of private firms across major urban areas in the Syrian Arab Republic -- including Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Latakia, and Damascus -- since the conflict began in 2011. This builds on the World Bank's Enterprise Survey from 2009 and attempts to survey each of the 508 firms from 2009 again. The survey highlights the major challenges facing firms in Syria today, such as access to electricity, fuel, and water. Yet, loss of workers, managers, and supply chain relationships are also notably severe. Rebuilding the social and human capital of Syria may be even more difficult than the bricks and mortar. The paper also identifies the ways firms have been affected in their prices, sales, supply chains, taxation, and costs as well as how they have adapted in financing and employment. These constraints and impacts are also analyzed at the subnational level and across sectors. Firms in Aleppo stand out for their uniquely difficult challenges and responses that are sometimes at odds with the rest of the country. Finally, the paper analyzes firm exit from 2009 to 2017 and finds that higher productivity firms from 2009 were more likely to survive, except in Aleppo where the reverse holds. The paper hypothesizes that productive firms facing the particularly severe destruction in Aleppo may have made a different calculation compared with productive firms elsewhere: to use their capabilities to leave rather than to use their capabilities to weather the storm.
format Working Paper
author Salmon, Kinley
Assaf, Nabila
Francis, David
author_facet Salmon, Kinley
Assaf, Nabila
Francis, David
author_sort Salmon, Kinley
title Surviving Firms of the Syrian Arab Republic : A Rapid Assessment
title_short Surviving Firms of the Syrian Arab Republic : A Rapid Assessment
title_full Surviving Firms of the Syrian Arab Republic : A Rapid Assessment
title_fullStr Surviving Firms of the Syrian Arab Republic : A Rapid Assessment
title_full_unstemmed Surviving Firms of the Syrian Arab Republic : A Rapid Assessment
title_sort surviving firms of the syrian arab republic : a rapid assessment
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/564631522691841379/Surviving-firms-of-the-Syrian-Arab-Republic-a-rapid-assessment
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29610
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