Campos, FranciscoGoldstein, MarkusMcKenzie, David2016-01-142016-01-142015-01https://hdl.handle.net/10986/23653Despite 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.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOACCESS TO BANK ACCOUNTSACCESS TO CREDITACCESS TO EXTERNAL FINANCEACCESS TO FINANCEACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICESACCESS TO INSURANCEACCESS TO MARKETSACCESS TO SAVINGSACCOUNTACCOUNT USAGEACCOUNTSADMINISTRATIVE RECORDSBANK ACCESSBANK ACCOUNTBANK ACCOUNTSBANK LOANBANK LOANSBANKSBILLSBORROWINGBRIBEBUSINESS ACTIVITIESBUSINESS CENTERSBUSINESS DEVELOPMENTBUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICESBUSINESS ENABLINGBUSINESS ENABLING ENVIRONMENTBUSINESS ENVIRONMENTBUSINESS EXPENSESBUSINESS FACILITATIONBUSINESS FINANCESBUSINESS INFORMATIONBUSINESS LOANBUSINESS OWNERBUSINESS OWNERSBUSINESS PERFORMANCEBUSINESS PLANBUSINESS PURPOSESBUSINESS REGISTRATIONBUSINESS RESOURCESBUSINESS TRAININGBUSINESSESCASH DEPOSITSCCCERTIFICATECERTIFICATESCHAMBER OF COMMERCECOLLATERALCONTACT INFORMATIONCOST SAVINGSCREDIT ASSOCIATIONDEBT OUTSTANDINGDEPRECIATIONDIRECT COSTSEARNINGSECONOMIC ACTIVITYECONOMIC GROWTHEDUCATION LEVELSELECTRICITYENABLING ENVIRONMENTENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENTENTREPRENEURENTREPRENEURSEXCHANGE RATEFARM ENTERPRISESFEDERAL TAXESFEMALE BUSINESSFEMALE ENTREPRENEURSFINANCIAL ACCESSFINANCIAL INSTITUTIONFINANCIAL INSTITUTIONSFINANCIAL LITERACYFINANCIAL PERFORMANCEFINANCIAL PRODUCTSFINANCIAL SERVICESFINANCING NEEDFIXED ASSETSFORMAL BANKFORMAL FINANCIAL SECTORFORMAL SAVINGSGENDERGENDER DIFFERENCEGENDER EQUALITYGENDER GAPGENDER GAPSGREATER ACCESSHARDWAREHOUSEHOLD FINANCESHUMAN RESOURCESIDENTIFICATION NUMBERIMPACT EVALUATIONINCOME TAXINDIVIDUAL ENTREPRENEURSINFORMAL ECONOMYINFORMAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONSINNOVATIONINNOVATIONSINSPECTIONINSPECTIONSINTEREST RATEINTERNATIONAL BANKINTERNATIONAL FINANCELACK OF ACCESSLICENSELICENSESMANUFACTURINGMIDDLEMANMINIMUM BALANCENEW BUSINESSNEW PRODUCTSONE-STOP SHOPOPEN ACCESSOUTREACHOUTSTANDING DEBTPHOTOPRIVATE ENTERPRISEPRIVATE SECTORPRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENTPROCUREMENTPROJECT MANAGEMENTPROTOCOLRECEIPTSREGISTRATION APPLICATIONREGISTRATION OF BUSINESSREGISTRATION PROCESSREGISTRATION PROCESSESREGISTRYREPORTINGRESULTRESULTSSALESSAVINGS ACCOUNTSSAVINGS PRODUCTSELLINGSMALL BUSINESSSMALL ENTERPRISESSUBSTITUTESTECHNICAL ASSISTANCETECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROJECTTERM CREDITTRANSACTIONTRANSACTION COSTSTURNAROUND TIMEVERIFICATIONWOMEN ENTREPRENEURSWOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIPAFRICA GENDER POLICYGENDER INNOVATION LABWOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENTWorking PaperWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-7183