Publication: Small Enterprise Growth and the Rural Investment Climate: Evidence from Tanzania
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Published
2010
ISSN
10176772
Date
2012-03-30
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This paper analyzes characteristics of nonfarm enterprises, their employment growth patterns, and constraints in doing business in rural Tanzania. Using unique survey data, we describe a low-return sector struggling to compete in a challenging business environment. However, about one-third of rural enterprises are growing fast. Most enterprises engage in agricultural trade. Due to a rapidly growing agricultural sector in recent years, limiting demand-side constraints, rural enterprise constraints in Tanzania mainly operate from the supply-side, suggesting that in particular access to finance, road infrastructure and rural cell phone communication is associated with employment growth. A major finding is that subjective and objective measurements of business constraints are broadly comparable. We discuss a number of factors that would help to unleash the full potential of private sector-led growth in rural areas. Marginal improvements of the rural investment climate matter for growth.
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Publication Small Enterprise Growth and the Rural Investment Climate : Evidence from Tanzania(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-07)This paper analyzes characteristics of nonfarm enterprises, their employment growth patterns, and constraints in doing business in rural Tanzania. Using unique survey data, the authors describe a low-return sector struggling to compete in a difficult business environment. However, about one-third of rural enterprises are growing fast. Most enterprises engage in agricultural trade. Due to a rapidly growing agricultural sector in recent years, limiting demand-side constraints, rural enterprise constraints in Tanzania mainly operate from the supply side. This suggests that, in particular, access to finance, road infrastructure, and rural cell phone communication is correlated with employment growth. A major finding is that subjective and objective measurements of business constraints are broadly comparable. The authors discuss a number of factors that would help to unleash the full potential of private sector-led growth in rural areas. The findings show that marginal improvements in the rural investment climate matter for growth.Publication A Rural-Urban Comparison of Manufacturing Enterprise Performance in Ethiopia(2010)Manufacturing enterprises in rural and urban Ethiopia are compared to examine how location and investment climate characteristics affect performance. Urban firms are larger, more capital intensive and have higher labor productivity than rural firms, yet there is no strong evidence of increasing returns to scale. The hypothesis that firms in rural towns have the same average total factor productivity as urban firms is not rejected; however, firms in remote rural areas are less productive. Rural firms grow less quickly than urban firms. These results can partly be attributed to differences in the quality of infrastructure, access to credit and transportation costs across rural and urban areas. Since rural firms operate in a business environment that is very different from its urban counterpart, lessons derived from urban investment climate surveys cannot immediately be transferred to rural areas.Publication Nonfarm Microenterprise Performance and the Investment Climate : Evidence from Rural Ethiopia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-03)This paper uses uniquely matched household, enterprise and community survey data from four major regions in rural Ethiopia to characterize the performance, constraints and opportunities of nonfarm enterprises. The nonfarm enterprise sector is sizeable, particularly important for women, and plays an important role during the low season for agriculture, when alternative job opportunities are limited. Returns to nonfarm enterprise employment are low on average and especially so for female-headed enterprises. Women nevertheless have much higher participation rates than men, which attest to their marginalized position in the labor market. Most enterprises are very small and rely almost exclusively on household members to provide the required labor inputs. Few firms add to their capital stock or increase their labor inputs after startup. Local fluctuations in predicted crop performance affect the performance of nonfarm enterprises, because of the predominant role played by the agricultural sector. Enterprise performance is also affected by the localized nature of sales and limited market integration for nonfarm enterprises. The policy implications of these and other findings are discussed.Publication Tanzania - Pilot Rural Investment Climate Assessment : Stimulating Non-Farm Microenterprise Growth(Washington, DC, 2007-06)Tanzania's Pilot Rural Investment Climate Assessment (RICA) measures the economic environment of non-farm entrepreneurs. The pilot assessment has three key objectives: it aims to better understand the rural non-farm economy in Tanzania, shed light on rural enterprise dynamics and business constraints, and reflect on areas where government policies are readily directed to help promote rural non-farm enterprise activity. The RICA is based on an analysis of a unique survey data set collected by the National Bureau o f Statistics (NBS) during January and March 2005, covering enterprises, households, and communities in all seven geographical zones of the country. Some of the main findings of the study are: 1) Rural non farm enterprises matter; 2) Tanzanian rural non farm enterprises differ from their urban counterparts; 3) Rural trade dominates; 4) Labor productivity is low; 5) Registration is associated with higher labor productivity; 6) The rate of new firm creation appears to be lower than in other African countries; 7) A minority of enterprises propels employment growth; and 8) Due to relatively rapid agricultural growth in recent years, demand exists for more rural non-farm economic activity. However, entrepreneurs are now constrained mainly from the supply-side in their response to this increased demand.Publication Zanzibar - The Effect of the Investment Climate on Performance of Micro and Small Enterprise in Zanzibar : A Comparison with Mainland Tanzania and Other Countries(Washington, DC, 2007-10)This study looks at firm performance and the investment climate in Zanzibar. The main source of information is a 2003-2004 survey of manufacturing enterprises. The report is complementary to an earlier report looking at the investment climate in the whole of the United Republic of Tanzania, including Zanzibar (Regional Program on Enterprise Development, 2004). To avoid redundancy with the earlier report, this report focuses on areas where the investment climate is different in Zanzibar from mainland Tanzania. Zanzibar is a small island economy found close to the Tanzanian mainland. Like other small island economies, limited diversification and a small domestic market make Zanzibar vulnerable to terms of trade and other shocks. Diversifying into manufacturing a goal that is consistent with Zanzibar's Growth Strategy (2006-2015) would reduce this vulnerability. This report looks at existing manufacturing firms in Zanzibar to see how their performance compares with similar firms in other parts of Tanzania, other countries in Africa, and other small island economies. It also compares the investment climate in Zanzibar with the investment climate on the mainland and in other nearby countries. Although the investment climate in Zanzibar is more favorable in many areas than it is on the mainland, firms remained more concerned about several areas. Consistent with the evidence on worker skills and capital intensity, firms were more likely to say that access to finance and workers skills and education were serious problems than firms on the mainland were. Objective data are consistent with this-fewer firms had loans, firms reported having less capital and workers and managers were less likely to be university educated in Zanzibar. Improving education and taking steps to attract skilled workers from the mainland and elsewhere -- and improving access to finance, therefore, should be a priority.
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