## Structural Reforms and Firms’ Productivity: Evidence from Developing Countries

_IMF Working Papers, March 19, 2018_

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Wilfried A. Kouamé, Sampawende J Tapsoba
- Published: March 19, 2018
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484347003.001

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### Authors and publication
- By Wilfried A. Kouamé, Sampawende J Tapsoba
- March 19, 2018
- IMF Working Papers, Working Paper No. 2018/063, Issue: 063, Pages: 42
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484347003.001
- ISBN: 9781484347003
- ISSN: 1018-5941

### Research question and data
- Research question: Assess the effects of structural reforms on firm-level productivity in developing countries.
- Sample: 37 developing countries.
- Time period: 2006 to 2014.
- Reform indexes source: IMF Monitoring of Fund Arrangements dataset.
- Firm-level productivity source: World Bank Enterprise Surveys.

### Key empirical findings
- Structural reforms such as financial, fiscal, real sector, and trade reforms significantly improve firm-level productivity.
- Real sector reforms have the most sizeable effects on firm-level productivity.
- The relationship between structural reforms and firm-level productivity is nonlinear.
- The effect of reforms on productivity is shaped by firm characteristics including financial access, the distortionary environment, and firm size.
- Being a “strong reformer” (pace of reforms matters) is associated with a clear productivity dividend for firms.
- Except for financial and trade reforms, all structural reforms under consideration are bilaterally complementary in improving firm-level productivity.
- These findings are robust to several sensitivity checks.

### Subject coverage and keywords
- Subjects: Business environment; Economic sectors; Fiscal policy; Labor productivity; Macrostructural analysis; Production; Productivity; Structural reforms.
- Keywords included in the source: Business environment; Central Asia; Developing countries; East Asia; firm level; firm-level productivity; firms benefit; firms' characteristic; Global; growth potential; Labor productivity; Middle East, North Africa; Productivity; productivity gain; productivity gains; standard deviation; structural reform; Structural Reforms; WP.

### Robustness and scope notes
- Results are reported as robust to several sensitivity checks (no additional numeric details provided on the page).
- Analysis focuses on bilateral complementarities across reform types, with the exception noted for financial and trade reforms.

*Source: IMF Working Paper “Structural Reforms and Firms’ Productivity: Evidence from Developing Countries”, Wilfried A. Kouamé and Sampawende J Tapsoba, March 19, 2018.*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2018/03/19/structural-reforms-and-firms-productivity-evidence-from-developing-countries-45718_