Publication: Firm Productivity and Employment in Paraguay 2010-2014
Date
2018-09-01
ISSN
Published
2018-09-01
Author(s)
Ruppert Bulmer, Elizabeth
Scutaru, Adrian
Abstract
Paraguay has achieved positive
employment outcomes over the last decade, reflecting more
jobs and improved average job quality, which together
contributed to significant poverty reduction. Firms played a
major role in creating these jobs, especially formal jobs.
It is important to understand how firm performance has
translated into employment, the nature of the resulting
jobs, and the factors affecting these outcomes. Using
firm-level datasets, this analysis explores the
characteristics of firms that are growing or stagnating; the
sectors into which new firms are entering or incumbent firms
are expanding their operations; and the factors that may be
helping or hindering firms to enter, expand, or increase
their productivity. High rates of informality and evasion
create a challenging private sector environment for firms,
but even among formal firms, the prevailing structure is
characterized by micro-firms that lack scale economies, are
concentrated in non-tradables, have generally low
productivity levels, and rely on unskilled employment. The
analysis also finds a pervasive duality between micro-sized
low-productivity firms on one end, and a small number of
highly productive firms in concentrated markets on the other
end. These results imply some important challenges for the
continued development of a healthy, dynamic and inclusive
private sector.
Citation
“Ruppert Bulmer, Elizabeth; Scutaru, Adrian. 2018. Firm Productivity and Employment in Paraguay 2010-2014. Jobs Working Paper;No. 19. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30610 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”