Abstract

The World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of topics related to the business environment including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, competition, and performance.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The universe of inference includes all formal (i.e., registered) private sector businesses (with at least 1% private ownership) and with at least five employees. In terms of sectoral criteria, all manufacturing businesses (ISIC Rev 4. codes 10-33) are eligible; for services businesses, those corresponding to the ISIC Rev 4 codes 41-43, 45-47, 49-53, 55-56, 58, 61-62, 69-75, 79, and 95 are included in the Enterprise Surveys. Cooperatives and collectives are excluded from the Enterprise Surveys.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The WBES use stratified random sampling, where the population of establishments is first separated into non-overlapping groups, called strata, and then respondents are selected through simple random sampling from each stratum. The detailed methodology is provided in the Sampling Note (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Sampling_Note-Consolidated-2-16-22.pdf). Stratified random sampling has several advantages over simple random sampling. In particular, it:

• produces unbiased estimates of the whole population or universe of inference, as well as at the levels of stratification
• ensures representativeness by including observations in all of those categories
• produces more precise estimates for a given sample size or budget allocation, and
• may reduce implementation costs by splitting the population into convenient subdivisions.

The WBES typically use three levels of stratification: industry classification, establishment size, and subnational region (used in combination).

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The standard WBES questionnaire covers several topics regarding the business environment and business performance. These topics include general firm characteristics, infrastructure, sales and supplies, management practices, competition, innovation, capacity, land and permits, finance, business-government relations, exposure to bribery, labor, and performance. Information about the general structure of the questionnaire is available in the Enterprise Surveys Manual and Guide (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Enterprise-Surveys-Manual-and-Guide.pdf).

The documentation covers Enterprise Survey panel datasets that were collected in Chad in 2009 and 2018. The Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. The objective of the Enterprise Survey is to gain an understanding of what firms experience in the private sector. As part of its strategic goal of building a climate for investment, job creation, and sustainable growth, the World Bank has promoted improving the business environment as a key strategy for development, which has led to a systematic effort in collecting enterprise data across countries. The Enterprise Surveys (ES) are an ongoing World Bank project in collecting both objective data based on firms' experiences and enterprises' perception of the environment in which they operate.

Abstract

The World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of topics related to the business environment including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, competition, and performance.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The universe of inference includes all formal (i.e., registered) private sector businesses (with at least 1% private ownership) and with at least five employees. In terms of sectoral criteria, all manufacturing businesses (ISIC Rev 4. codes 10-33) are eligible; for services businesses, those corresponding to the ISIC Rev 4 codes 41-43, 45-47, 49-53, 55-56, 58, 61-62, 69-75, 79, and 95 are included in the Enterprise Surveys. Cooperatives and collectives are excluded from the Enterprise Surveys. All eligible establishments must be registered with the registration agency. In the case of Viet Nam, the listing from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, the 2021 Economic Census, was used. The registration agency is the Department of Planning and investment.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The WBES use stratified random sampling, where the population of establishments is first separated into non-overlapping groups, called strata, and then respondents are selected through simple random sampling from each stratum. The detailed methodology is provided in the Sampling Note (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Sampling_Note-Consolidated-2-16-22.pdf). Stratified random sampling has several advantages over simple random sampling. In particular, it:

• produces unbiased estimates of the whole population or universe of inference, as well as at the levels of stratification
• ensures representativeness by including observations in all of those categories
• produces more precise estimates for a given sample size or budget allocation, and
• may reduce implementation costs by splitting the population into convenient subdivisions.

The WBES typically use three levels of stratification: industry classification, establishment size, and subnational region (used in combination). Starting in 2022, the WBES bases the industry classification on ISIC Rev. 4 (with earlier surveys using ISIC Rev. 3.1). For regional coverage within a country, the WBES has national coverage.

Note: Refer to Sampling Structure section in "The Viet Nam 2023 World Bank Enterprise Survey Implementation Report" for detailed methodology on sampling.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The standard WBES questionnaire covers several topics regarding the business environment and business performance. These topics include general firm characteristics, infrastructure, sales and supplies, management practices, competition, innovation, capacity, land and permits, finance, business-government relations, exposure to bribery, labor, and performance. Information about the general structure of the questionnaire is available in the Enterprise Surveys Manual and Guide (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Enterprise-Surveys-Manual-and-Guide.pdf).

The questionnaire implemented in the Viet Nam 2023 WBES included additional questions tailored for the Business Ready Report covering infrastructure, trade, government regulations, finance, labor, and other topics.

Response rate

Overall survey response rate was 31.7%.

Abstract

The documented dataset covers Enterprise Survey (ES) panel data collected in Zambia in 2007 and 2013, as part of Africa Enterprise Surveys roll-out, an initiative of the World Bank.

Zambia ES 2013 was conducted between December 2012 and February 2014, Zambia ES 2007 was carried out in October and November 2007. The objective of the Enterprise Survey is to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.

Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses. The data was collected using face-to-face interviews.

Data from 1,204 establishments was analyzed: 568 businesses were from 2013 ES only, 332 - from 2007 ES only, and 304 firms were from both 2007 and 2013 panels.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs and labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90 percent of the questions objectively measure characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or the universe, covered in the Enterprise Surveys is the non-agricultural private economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the ISIC Revision 3.1 group classification (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this population definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors. Companies with 100% government ownership are not eligible to participate in the Enterprise Surveys.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample for Zambia ES 2013 was selected using stratified random sampling. Three levels of stratification were used in this country: firm sector, firm size, and geographic region.

Industry stratification was designed in the way that follows: the universe was stratified into four manufacturing industries (food, textiles and garments, chemicals and plastics, other manufacturing) and two service sectors (retail and other services).

Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition for the Enterprise Surveys: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (more than 99 employees).

Regional stratification for the Zambia ES was defined in five regions: Kitwe, Livingstone, Lusaka, and Ndola.

One of the sampling frames for Zambia ES 2013 consisted of enterprises interviewed in Zambia 2007. The World Bank required that attempts should be made to re-interview establishments responding to the Zambia 2007 survey where they were within the selected geographical regions and met eligibility criteria. Due to the fact that the previous round of surveys seemed to have utilized different stratification criteria (or no stratification at all) and due to the prevalence of small firms and firms located in the capital city in the 2007 sample the following convention was used. The presence of panel firms was limited to a maximum of 50% of the achieved interviews in each cell. That sample is referred to as the Panel.

The sample for Zambia ES 2007 was drawn from a master list obtained by compiling two different updates of a list of establishments provided by Central Statistical Office. During the survey period, the master list was updated as new information regarding establishments that had closed or were out-of-scope was gathered and other establishments were added. The final population size in all strata and locations was 3,336.

The 2007 survey included panel data collected from establishments surveyed in 2003. That survey included establishments in all four manufacturing strata distributed across the entire country. In order to collect the largest possible set of panel data, an attempt was made to contact and survey every establishment in the panel, provided it was located in one of the four cities covered by this survey, it operated in the universe under study, and that the number of panel firms of a certain size in a given industry in a given city did not exceed the number of establishments in the corresponding sample structure. The remainder of the sample (including the entire rest of universe and retail sample in each city) was selected at random from the master list by a computer program.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The following survey instruments were used for Zambia ES 2013: - Manufacturing Module Questionnaire - Services Module Questionnaire

The survey is fielded via manufacturing or services questionnaires in order not to ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth. There is a skip pattern in the Service Module Questionnaire for questions that apply only to retail firms.

The following survey instruments were used for Zambia ES 2007: - Core Questionnaire + Manufacturing Module; - Core Questionnaire + Retail Module; - Core Questionnaire.

Most of the questions in all three questionnaires are the same. The "Core Questionnaire" is the heart of the Enterprise Survey and contains the survey questions asked of all firms across the world. There are also two other survey instruments - the "Core Questionnaire + Manufacturing Module" and the "Core Questionnaire + Retail Module." The survey is fielded via three instruments in order to not ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth.

Cleaning operations

Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate

Survey non-response must be differentiated from item non-response. The former refers to refusals to participate in the survey altogether whereas the latter refers to the refusals to answer some specific questions. Enterprise Surveys suffer from both problems and different strategies were used to address these issues.

Item non-response was addressed by two strategies: a- For sensitive questions that may generate negative reactions from the respondent, such as corruption or tax evasion, enumerators were instructed to collect "Refusal to respond" (-8) as a different option from "Don't know" (-9). b- Establishments with incomplete information were re-contacted in order to complete this information, whenever necessary.

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve strata-specific goals.

Abstract

The World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of topics related to the business environment including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, competition, and performance.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The universe of inference includes all formal (i.e., registered) private sector businesses (with at least 1% private ownership) and with at least five employees. In terms of sectoral criteria, all manufacturing businesses (ISIC Rev 4. codes 10-33) are eligible; for services businesses, those corresponding to the ISIC Rev 4 codes 41-43, 45-47, 49-53, 55-56, 58, 61-62, 69-75, 79, and 95 are included in the Enterprise Surveys. Cooperatives and collectives are excluded from the Enterprise Surveys. All eligible establishments must be registered with the registration agency. In the case of India, the definition of registration of the 6th Economic Census (EC) was used, where registration can be from any of the following: Shops and Commercial Establishments Act; Companies Act, 1956; Factories Act, 1948; Central Excise/Sales Tax Act; Societies Registration Act; Co-operative Societies Act; Directorate of Industries; KVIC/KVIB/DC: Handloom/Handicrafts; Registered with other relevant agencies.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The WBES use stratified random sampling, where the population of establishments is first separated into non-overlapping groups, called strata, and then respondents are selected through simple random sampling from each stratum. The detailed methodology is provided in the Sampling Note (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Sampling_Note-Consolidated-2-16-22.pdf). Stratified random sampling has several advantages over simple random sampling. In particular, it:

• produces unbiased estimates of the whole population or universe of inference, as well as at the levels of stratification
• ensures representativeness by including observations in all of those categories
• produces more precise estimates for a given sample size or budget allocation, and
• may reduce implementation costs by splitting the population into convenient subdivisions.

The WBES typically use three levels of stratification: industry classification, establishment size, and subnational region (used in combination). Starting in 2022, the WBES bases the industry classification on ISIC Rev. 4 (with earlier surveys using ISIC Rev. 3.1). For regional coverage within a country, the WBES has national coverage.

Note: Refer to Sampling Structure section in "The India 2022 World Bank Enterprise Survey Implementation Report" for detailed methodology on sampling.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The standard WBES questionnaire covers several topics regarding the business environment and business performance. These topics include general firm characteristics, infrastructure, sales and supplies, management practices, competition, innovation, capacity, land and permits, finance, business-government relations, exposure to bribery, labor, and performance. Information about the general structure of the questionnaire is available in the Enterprise Surveys Manual and Guide (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Enterprise-Surveys-Manual-and-Guide.pdf).

The questionnaire implemented in the India 2022 WBES included additional questions covering contractual disputes, COVID-19, green economy, delayed payments, invoice discounting (TReDS or similar services), government support, attitudes towards taxes, training costs, and childcare support. These questions were selected in collaboration with the members of the WB local country team.

Response rate

Overall survey response rate was 61.8%.

Abstract

The survey was conducted in in Senegal between May 2014 and February 2015, as part of Enterprise Surveys roll-out, an initiative of the World Bank. The objective of the survey is to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.

In Senegal, data from 601 establishments was analyzed. Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses. The data was collected using face-to-face interviews.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs and labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90 percent of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or the universe, covered in the Enterprise Surveys is the non-agricultural private economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the ISIC Revision 3.1 group classification (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this population definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors. Companies with 100% government ownership are not eligible to participate in the Enterprise Surveys.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample for Senegal was selected using stratified random sampling. Three levels of stratification were used in this country: industry, establishment size, and region.

Industry was stratified into two manufacturing sectors (food, other manufacturing) and three service sectors (retail, tourism, and other services).

Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition for the Enterprise Surveys: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (more than 99 employees).

Regional stratification for the Senegal ES was defined in four regions: Dakar, Kaolack, Saint-Louis, and Thies.

Two frames were used. The World Bank supplied the first frame; it consisted of enterprises interviewed in Senegal 2007 Enterprise Survey. The World Bank required that attempts should be made to re-interview establishments responding to the Senegal 2007 survey where they were within the selected geographical regions and met eligibility criteria. Due to the fact that the previous round of surveys seemed to have utilized different stratification criteria (or no stratification at all) and due to the prevalence of small firms and firms located in the capital city in the 2007 sample the following convention was used. The presence of panel firms was limited to a maximum of 50% of the achieved interviews in each cell. That sample is referred to as the Panel. The second frame was the Répertoire National des Entreprises et associations (RNEA) from the Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la Démographie (ANSD).

The enumerated establishments with five or more employees (fresh and panel) were then used as the sample frame for the Senegal Enterprise Survey with the aim of obtaining interviews at 600 establishments.

Given the impact that non-eligible units included in the sample universe may have on the results, adjustments may be needed when computing the appropriate weights for individual observations. The percentage of confirmed non-eligible units as a proportion of the total number of sampled establishments contacted for the survey was 7.4% (99 out of 1,342 establishments).

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The following survey instruments are available: - Manufacturing Module Questionnaire - Services Module Questionnaire

The survey is fielded via manufacturing or services questionnaires in order not to ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth.

There is a skip pattern in the Service Module Questionnaire for questions that apply only to retail firms.

All variables are named using, first, the letter of each section and, second, the number of the variable within the section, i.e. a1 denotes section A, question 1 (some exceptions apply due to comparability reasons). Variable names proceeded by a prefix "AF4"and "SNG" indicate questions specific to the region or Burundi, therefore, they may not be found in the implementation of the rollout in other countries. All other suffixed variables are global and are present in all country surveys over the world. All variables are numeric with the exception of those variables with an "x" at the end of their names. The suffix "x" denotes that the variable is alpha-numeric.

Cleaning operations

Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate

Survey non-response must be differentiated from item non-response. The former refers to refusals to participate in the survey altogether whereas the latter refers to the refusals to answer some specific questions. Enterprise Surveys suffer from both problems and different strategies were used to address these issues.

Item non-response was addressed by two strategies: a- For sensitive questions that may generate negative reactions from the respondent, such as corruption or tax evasion, enumerators were instructed to collect "Refusal to respond" (-8) as a different option from "Don't know" (-9). b- Establishments with incomplete information were re-contacted in order to complete this information, whenever necessary.

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve strata-specific goals.

The percentage of interviews per contacted establishments was 44.71%. This number is the result of two factors: explicit refusals to participate in the survey, as reflected by the rate of rejection (which includes rejections of the screener and the main survey) and the quality of the sample frame, as represented by the presence of ineligible units. The number of rejections per contact was 18.33%.

Abstract

The World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of topics related to the business environment including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, competition, and performance.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The universe of inference includes all formal (i.e., registered) private sector businesses (with at least 1% private ownership) and with at least five employees. In terms of sectoral criteria, all manufacturing businesses (ISIC Rev 4. codes 10-33) are eligible; for services businesses, those corresponding to the ISIC Rev 4 codes 41-43, 45-47, 49-53, 55-56, 58, 61-62, 69-75, 79, and 95 are included in the Enterprise Surveys. Cooperatives and collectives are excluded from the Enterprise Surveys. All eligible establishments must be registered with the registration agency. In the case of Mexico, the relevant agency has been identified in Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público has been considered as formal.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The WBES use stratified random sampling, where the population of establishments is first separated into non-overlapping groups, called strata, and then respondents are selected through simple random sampling from each stratum. The detailed methodology is provided in the Sampling Note (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Sampling_Note-Consolidated-2-16-22.pdf). Stratified random sampling has several advantages over simple random sampling. In particular, it:

• produces unbiased estimates of the whole population or universe of inference, as well as at the levels of stratification
• ensures representativeness by including observations in all of those categories
• produces more precise estimates for a given sample size or budget allocation, and
• may reduce implementation costs by splitting the population into convenient subdivisions.

The WBES typically use three levels of stratification: industry classification, establishment size, and subnational region (used in combination). Starting in 2022, the WBES bases the industry classification on ISIC Rev. 4 (with earlier surveys using ISIC Rev. 3.1). For regional coverage within a country, the WBES has national coverage.

Note: Refer to Sampling Structure section in "The Mexico 2023 World Bank Enterprise Survey Implementation Report" for detailed methodology on sampling.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The standard WBES questionnaire covers several topics regarding the business environment and business performance. These topics include general firm characteristics, infrastructure, sales and supplies, management practices, competition, innovation, capacity, land and permits, finance, business-government relations, exposure to bribery, labor, and performance. Information about the general structure of the questionnaire is available in the Enterprise Surveys Manual and Guide (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Enterprise-Surveys-Manual-and-Guide.pdf).

The questionnaire implemented in the Mexico 2023 WBES included questions tailored for the Business Ready Report covering infrastructure, trade, government regulations, finance, labor, and other topics.

Response rate

Overall survey response rate was 33.6%.

Abstract

The documented dataset covers Enterprise Survey (ES) panel data collected in Tanzania in 2006 and 2013 as part of Africa Enterprise Surveys rollout, an initiative of the World Bank.

New Enterprise Surveys target a sample consisting of longitudinal (panel) observations and new cross-sectional data. Panel firms are prioritized in the sample selection, comprising up to 50% of the sample in the current wave. For all panel firms, regardless of the sample, current eligibility or operating status is determined and included in panel datasets.

Tanzania ES 2013 was conducted between January 2013 and February 2014, and Tanzania ES 2006 between November and December 2006. The objective of Enterprise Surveys is to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.

Data from 1,142 establishments was analyzed: 698 businesses were from 2013 ES only, 394 - from 2006 ES only, and 50 firms were from both 2006 and 2013 panels.

Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses. The data was collected using face-to-face interviews.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs and labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90 percent of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or the universe, covered in the Enterprise Surveys is the non-agricultural private economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the ISIC Revision 3.1 group classification (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this population definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors. Companies with 100% government ownership are not eligible to participate in the Enterprise Surveys.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

For the Tanzania ES 2013, three sample frames were used. The first was supplied by the World Bank and consisted of enterprises interviewed in Tanzania 2006. The World Bank required that attempts are made to re-interview establishments responding to the Tanzania 2006 survey where they were within the selected geographical regions and met eligibility criteria. Due to the fact that the previous round of surveys seemed to have utilized different stratification criteria (or no stratification at all) and due to the prevalence of small firms and firms located in the capital city in the 2006 sample the following convention was used. The presence of panel firms was limited to a maximum of 50% of the achieved interviews in each cell. That sample is referred to as the Panel. The second frame was the 2011 Central Registry of Establishment (CRE) of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The sample frame was supplemented by an additional list of establishments from the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture (TCCIA) out of which 9 interviews were completed. The third frame was 2008 Central Registry of Establishment (CRE) of the Office of Chief Government Statistician (OCGS). The sample frame was used for the establishments in Zanzibar.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The following survey instruments were used for Tanzania ES 2013: - Manufacturing Module Questionnaire - Services Module Questionnaire

The survey is fielded via manufacturing or services questionnaires in order not to ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth.

There is a skip pattern in the Service Module Questionnaire for questions that apply only to retail firms.

The following survey instruments were used for Tanzania ES 2006: - Core Questionnaire + Manufacturing Module; - Core Questionnaire + Retail Module; - Core Questionnaire.

Most of the questions in all three questionnaires are the same.

The "Core Questionnaire" is the heart of the Enterprise Survey and contains the survey questions asked of all firms across the world. There are also two other survey instruments - the "Core Questionnaire + Manufacturing Module" and the "Core Questionnaire + Retail Module." The survey is fielded via three instruments in order to not ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth.

Cleaning operations

Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate

Survey non-response must be differentiated from item non-response. The former refers to refusals to participate in the survey altogether whereas the latter refers to the refusals to answer some specific questions. Enterprise Surveys suffer from both problems and different strategies were used to address these issues.

Item non-response was addressed by two strategies: a- For sensitive questions that may generate negative reactions from the respondent, such as corruption or tax evasion, enumerators were instructed to collect "Refusal to respond" (-8) as a different option from "Don't know" (-9). b- Establishments with incomplete information were re-contacted in order to complete this information, whenever necessary.

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve strata-specific goals.

Abstract

The survey was conducted in Ghana between December 2012 and July 2014 as part of the Africa Enterprise Survey 2013 roll-out, an initiative of the World Bank. The objective of the survey is to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.

Data from 720 establishments was analyzed. Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses. The data was collected using face-to-face interviews.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs and labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90 percent of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or the universe, covered in the Enterprise Surveys is the non-agricultural private economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the ISIC Revision 3.1 group classification (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this population definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors. Companies with 100% government ownership are not eligible to participate in the Enterprise Surveys.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample for Ghana was selected using stratified random sampling. Three levels of stratification were used in this country: firm sector, firm size, and geographic region.

Industry stratification was designed in the way that follows: the universe was stratified into four manufacturing industries (food, textiles and garments, chemicals and plastics, other manufacturing) and two service sectors (retail and other services).

Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition for the Enterprise Surveys: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (more than 99 employees).

Regional stratification for the Ghana ES was defined in four regions: Accra, North (Kumasi and Tamale), Takoradi, and Tema.

For the Ghana ES, several sample frames were used. The first was supplied by the World Bank and consists of enterprises interviewed in Ghana 2007. The World Bank required that attempts should be made to re-interview establishments responding to the Ghana 2007 survey where they were within the selected geographical regions and met eligibility criteria. Due to the fact that the previous round of surveys seemed to have utilized different stratification criteria (or no stratification at all) and due to the prevalence of small firms and firms located in the capital city in the 2007 sample the following convention was used. The presence of panel firms was limited to a maximum of 50% of the achieved interviews in each cell. That sample is referred to as the Panel.

The second frame was constructed using different lists acquired from relevant institutions in Ghana. The main lists used were obtained from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS). These include: 1) The 2012 Firm Registry. The registry lacked information on firm employee size. 2) The list of firms paying VAT. The VAT dataset included a variable on firms; turnover. The VAT dataset and Firm Registry were merged by using the firms' identification number (TIN). VAT information was not available for all firms in the Firm Registry. 3) The list of Large Tax Payers. The Large Tax Payers file also lacked information on firm employee size.

Since firm size was missing from all lists mentioned above, after having discussed with GSS and with the local contractor the following methods were used to predict firm size. - All firms who were in the Firm Registry but not in the VAT dataset were considered to be micro firms and therefore not use in the current survey. - Firms who were in the Firm Registry and in the VAT dataset were considered to be small firms. - Firms in the Large Tax Payers dataset were considered medium or large firms. The original design was divided into two size groups: small firms and medium and large firms.

During fieldwork the GSS lists proved to be very inaccurate and not sufficient to reach the target sample design, As such they were complemented with additional lists of firms from the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Business Associations. The list from the Ghana Chamber of Commerce lacked information on firm employee size or firm turnover. Given the impact that non-eligible units included in the sample universe may have on the results, adjustments may be needed when computing the appropriate weights for individual observations. The percentage of confirmed non-eligible units as a proportion of the total number of sampled establishments contacted for the survey was 1.3% (26 out of 1,990 establishments).

Finally, a block enumeration was also undertaken in order to build an additional list. The block enumeration allowed to physically creating a list of establishments from which to sample from. A total of 41 blocks were enumerated in the four locations included in the project out of the total 804 blocks identified. The enumeration was conducted without major problems in the time planned. The list of enumerated firms contained 958 records eligible for main Enterprise Survey.

Note: Unlike the standard ES, the universe for the Ghana ES is characterized by the presence of 5 size categories. The category medium&large was added as stratum in order to sample from the GSS large payers list, while the category "unknow size" was included in order to sample the firms in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry list.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The following survey instruments are available: - Manufacturing Module Questionnaire - Services Module Questionnaire

The survey is fielded via manufacturing or services questionnaires in order not to ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth.

There is a skip pattern in the Service Module Questionnaire for questions that apply only to retail firms.

Cleaning operations

Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate

Survey non-response must be differentiated from item non-response. The former refers to refusals to participate in the survey altogether whereas the latter refers to the refusals to answer some specific questions. Enterprise Surveys suffer from both problems and different strategies were used to address these issues.

Item non-response was addressed by two strategies: a- For sensitive questions that may generate negative reactions from the respondent, such as corruption or tax evasion, enumerators were instructed to collect "Refusal to respond" (-8) as a different option from "Don't know" (-9). b- Establishments with incomplete information were re-contacted in order to complete this information, whenever necessary.

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve

The World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES) are nationally representative firm-level surveys with top managers and owners of businesses in over 150 economies that provide insight into many business environment topics such as access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, and performance, among others. Data are used to create over 100 indicators that benchmark the business environment across the globe. Each country is surveyed every 3 years. In addition to country-level aggregated data, firm-level data are available to registered users on the Enterprise Surveys site at http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/.

Abstract

The World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of topics related to the business environment including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, competition, and performance.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

All formal (i.e., registered) private sector businesses (with at least 1% private ownership) and with at least five employees. In terms of sectoral criteria, all manufacturing businesses (ISIC Rev 4. codes 10-33) are eligible; for services businesses, those corresponding to the ISIC Rev 4 codes 41-43, 45-47, 49-53, 55-56, 58, 61-62, 69-75, 79, and 95 are included in the Enterprise Surveys. Cooperatives and collectives are excluded from the Enterprise Surveys. All eligible establishments must be registered with the registration agency, Public Services Agency in the case of Moldova.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The WBES use stratified random sampling, where the population of establishments is first separated into non-overlapping groups, called strata, and then respondents are selected through simple random sampling from each stratum. The detailed methodology is provided in the Sampling Note (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Sampling_Note-Consolidated-2-16-22.pdf). Stratified random sampling has several advantages over simple random sampling. In particular, it:

• produces unbiased estimates of the whole population or universe of inference, as well as at the levels of stratification
• ensures representativeness by including observations in all of those categories
• produces more precise estimates for a given sample size or budget allocation, and
• may reduce implementation costs by splitting the population into convenient subdivisions.

The WBES typically use three levels of stratification: industry classification, establishment size, and subnational region (used in combination). Starting in 2022, the WBES bases the industry classification on ISIC Rev. 4 (with earlier surveys using ISIC Rev. 3.1). For regional coverage within a country, the WBES has national coverage.

Note: Refer to Sampling Structure section in "The Moldova 2024 World Bank Enterprise Survey Implementation Report" for detailed methodology on sampling.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The standard WBES questionnaire covers several topics regarding the business environment and business performance. These topics include general firm characteristics, infrastructure, sales and supplies, management practices, competition, innovation, capacity, land and permits, finance, business-government relations, exposure to bribery, labor, and performance. Information about the general structure of the questionnaire is available in the Enterprise Surveys Manual and Guide (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Enterprise-Surveys-Manual-and-Guide.pdf).

Response rate

Overall survey response rate was 45.1%.

Abstract

An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. The objective of the Enterprise Survey is to gain an understanding of what firms experience in the private sector.

As part of its strategic goal of building a climate for investment, job creation, and sustainable growth, the World Bank has promoted improving the business environment as a key strategy for development, which has led to a systematic effort in collecting enterprise data across countries. The Enterprise Surveys (ES) are an ongoing World Bank project in collecting both objective data based on firms’ experiences and enterprises’ perception of the environment in which they operate.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or universe of the study, is the non-agricultural economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the group classification of ISIC Revision 3.1: (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities-sectors.

Kind of data

Sample survey data[ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample for 2017 Colombia ES was selected using stratified random sampling, following the methodology explained in the Sampling Note.

Three levels of stratification were used in this country: industry, establishment size, and region.

Industry stratification was designed as follows: the universe was stratified into three manufacturing industries and two services industries- Food and Beverages (ISIC Rev. 3.1 code 15), Textiles and Garments (ISIC codes 17,18), Other Manufacturing (ISIC codes 16, 19-37), Retail (ISIC code 52) and Other Services (ISIC codes 45, 50, 51, 55, 60-64, and 72).

For the Colombia ES, size stratification was defined as follows: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (100 or more employees).

Regional stratification was done across five regions: Bogota, Cali, Medellin, Barranquilla and Cartagena

Note: See Sections II and III of "The Colombia 2017 Enterprise Surveys Data Set" report for additional details on the sampling procedure.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-Face[f2f]

Research instrument

Two questionnaires - Manufacturing and Services were used to collect the survey data.The questionnaires have common questions (core module) and respectfully additional manufacturing and services specific questions. The eligible manufacturing industries have been surveyed using the Manufacturing questionnaire (includes the core module, plus manufacturing specific questions). Retail firms have been interviewed using the Services questionnaire (includes the core module plus retail specific questions) and the residual eligible services have been covered using the Services questionnaire (includes the core module). Each variation of the questionnaire is identified by the index variable, a0.

Response rate

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve strata-specific goals; whenever this was done, strict rules were followed to ensure replacements were randomly selected within the same stratum. Further research is needed on survey non-response in the Enterprise Surveys regarding potential introduction of bias.

The share of interviews per contacted establishments was 0.18. This number is the result of two factors: explicit refusals to participate in the survey, as reflected by the rate of rejection (which includes rejections of the screener and the main survey) and the quality of the sample frame, as represented by the presence of ineligible units. The share of rejections per contact was 0.44.

Abstract

The World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of topics related to the business environment including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, competition, and performance.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The universe of inference includes all formal (i.e., registered) private sector businesses (with at least 1% private ownership) and with at least five employees. In terms of sectoral criteria, all manufacturing businesses (ISIC Rev 4. codes 10-33) are eligible; for services businesses, those corresponding to the ISIC Rev 4 codes 41-43, 45-47, 49-53, 55-56, 58, 61-62, 69-75, 79, and 95 are included in the Enterprise Surveys. Cooperatives and collectives are excluded from the Enterprise Surveys. All eligible establishments must be registered with the registration agency. In the case of Ghana, registration was from Registrar General’s Department.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The WBES use stratified random sampling, where the population of establishments is first separated into non-overlapping groups, called strata, and then respondents are selected through simple random sampling from each stratum. The detailed methodology is provided in the Sampling Note (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Sampling_Note-Consolidated-2-16-22.pdf). Stratified random sampling has several advantages over simple random sampling. In particular, it:

• produces unbiased estimates of the whole population or universe of inference, as well as at the levels of stratification
• ensures representativeness by including observations in all of those categories
• produces more precise estimates for a given sample size or budget allocation, and
• may reduce implementation costs by splitting the population into convenient subdivisions.

The WBES typically use three levels of stratification: industry classification, establishment size, and subnational region (used in combination). Starting in 2022, the WBES bases the industry classification on ISIC Rev. 4 (with earlier surveys using ISIC Rev. 3.1). For regional coverage within a country, the WBES has national coverage.

Note: Refer to Sampling Structure section in "The Ghana 2023 World Bank Enterprise Survey Implementation Report" for detailed methodology on sampling.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The standard WBES questionnaire covers several topics regarding the business environment and business performance. These topics include general firm characteristics, infrastructure, sales and supplies, management practices, competition, innovation, capacity, land and permits, finance, business-government relations, exposure to bribery, labor, and performance. Information about the general structure of the questionnaire is available in the Enterprise Surveys Manual and Guide (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Enterprise-Surveys-Manual-and-Guide.pdf).

The questionnaire implemented in the Ghana 2023 WBES included additional questions tailored for the Business Ready Report covering infrastructure, trade, government regulations, finance, labor, and other topics.

Response rate

Overall survey response rate was 24.8%.

Abstract

The survey was conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo between August 2013 and May 2014 as part of the Africa Enterprise Survey 2013 roll-out, an initiative of the World Bank. The objective of the survey is to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.

Data from 529 establishments was analyzed. Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses. The data was collected using face-to-face interviews.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs and labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90 percent of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or the universe, covered in the Enterprise Surveys is the non-agricultural private economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the ISIC Revision 3.1 group classification (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this population definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors. Companies with 100% government ownership are not eligible to participate in the Enterprise Surveys.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample was selected using stratified random sampling. Three levels of stratification were used in this country: firm sector, firm size, and geographic region.

Industry stratification was designed in the way that follows: the universe was stratified into four manufacturing industries (food, textiles and garments, chemicals and plastics, other manufacturing) and two service sectors (retail and other services).

Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition for the Enterprise Surveys: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (more than 99 employees).

For regional stratification, the country was divided into four regions: - Center (Kananga and Mbuji Mayi), - East (Bukavu, Butembo, Goma, Kisangani), - South (LIkasi, Lubumbashi), - North (Boma, Kikwit, Kinshasa, Matadi).

Two sample frames were used in the study. The first was supplied by the World Bank and consisted of enterprises interviewed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2010. That sample is referred to as the Panel. The second frame was built by undertaking block enumeration because a suitable sample frame from appropriate institutions in DRC was not available.

The enumerated establishments with five employees or more (fresh and panel) were then used as the sample frame for the DRC Enterprise Survey with the aim of obtaining interviews at 512 establishments.

Given the impact that non-eligible units included in the sample universe may have on the results, adjustments may be needed when computing the appropriate weights for individual observations. The percentage of confirmed non-eligible units as a proportion of the total number of sampled establishments contacted for the survey was 6 % (54 out of 893 establishments).

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The following survey instruments are available: - Manufacturing Module Questionnaire - Services Module Questionnaire

The survey is fielded via manufacturing or services questionnaires in order not to ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth.

There is a skip pattern in the Service Module Questionnaire for questions that apply only to retail firms.

Cleaning operations

Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate

Survey non-response must be differentiated from item non-response. The former refers to refusals to participate in the survey altogether whereas the latter refers to the refusals to answer some specific questions. Enterprise Surveys suffer from both problems and different strategies were used to address these issues.

Item non-response was addressed by two strategies: a- For sensitive questions that may generate negative reactions from the respondent, such as corruption or tax evasion, enumerators were instructed to collect "Refusal to respond" (-8) as a different option from "Don't know" (-9). b- Establishments with incomplete information were re-contacted in order to complete this information, whenever necessary.

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve strata-specific goals.

The number of interviews per contacted establishments was 0.83. This number is the result of two factors: explicit refusals to participate in the survey, as reflected by the rate of rejection (which includes rejections of the screener and the main survey) and the quality of the sample frame, as represented by the presence of ineligible units. The number of rejections per contact was 0.16.

Abstract

The World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy's private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of topics related to the business environment including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, competition, and performance.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The universe of inference includes all formal (i.e., registered) private sector businesses (with at least 1% private ownership) and with at least five employees. In terms of sectoral criteria, all manufacturing businesses (ISIC Rev 4. codes 10-33) are eligible; for services businesses, those corresponding to the ISIC Rev 4 codes 41-43, 45-47, 49-53, 55-56, 58, 61-62, 69-75, 79, and 95 are included in the Enterprise Surveys. Cooperatives and collectives are excluded from the Enterprise Surveys. All eligible establishments must be registered with the registration agency. In the case of the Philippines, the listing from the PSA’s List of Establishments (LE), a registrar of businesses operating in the Philippines, was used. The registration agency is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The WBES use stratified random sampling, where the population of establishments is first separated into non-overlapping groups, called strata, and then respondents are selected through simple random sampling from each stratum. The detailed methodology is provided in the Sampling Note (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Sampling_Note-Consolidated-2-16-22.pdf). Stratified random sampling has several advantages over simple random sampling. In particular, it:

• produces unbiased estimates of the whole population or universe of inference, as well as at the levels of stratification
• ensures representativeness by including observations in all of those categories
• produces more precise estimates for a given sample size or budget allocation, and
• may reduce implementation costs by splitting the population into convenient subdivisions.

The WBES typically use three levels of stratification: industry classification, establishment size, and subnational region (used in combination). Starting in 2022, the WBES bases the industry classification on ISIC Rev. 4 (with earlier surveys using ISIC Rev. 3.1). For regional coverage within a country, the WBES has national coverage.

Note: Refer to Sampling Structure section in "The Philippines 2023 World Bank Enterprise Survey Implementation Report" for detailed methodology on sampling.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The standard WBES questionnaire covers several topics regarding the business environment and business performance. These topics include general firm characteristics, infrastructure, sales and supplies, management practices, competition, innovation, capacity, land and permits, finance, business-government relations, exposure to bribery, labor, and performance. Information about the general structure of the questionnaire is available in the Enterprise Surveys Manual and Guide (https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Enterprise-Surveys-Manual-and-Guide.pdf).

The questionnaire implemented in the Philippines 2023 WBES included additional questions tailored for the Business Ready Report covering infrastructure, trade, government regulations, finance, labor, and other topics.

Response rate

Overall survey response rate was 68.0%.

Abstract

The survey was conducted in Uganda between January 2013 and August 2013 as part of the Africa Enterprise Survey 2013 roll-out, an initiative of the World Bank. Data from 640 establishments was analyzed. Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses.

The objective of the survey is to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs and labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90 percent of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance. The mode of data collection is face-to-face interviews.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or the universe, covered in the Enterprise Surveys is the non-agricultural private economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the ISIC Revision 3.1 group classification (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this population definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors. Companies with 100% government ownership are not eligible to participate in the Enterprise Surveys.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample for Uganda was selected using stratified random sampling. Three levels of stratification were used in this country: firm sector, firm size, and geographic region.

Industry stratification was designed in the way that follows: the universe was stratified into three manufacturing industry (food, textiles and garments, other manufacturing) and two service sectors (retail and other services).

Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition for the Enterprise Surveys: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (more than 99 employees). For stratification purposes, the number of employees was defined on the basis of reported permanent full-time workers. This seems to be an appropriate definition of the labor force since seasonal/casual/part-time employment is not a common practice, except in the sectors of construction and agriculture.

Regional stratification for the Uganda ES was defined in six regions (city and the surrounding business area): Jinja, Kampala, Lira, Mbale, Mbarara, and Wakiso.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics database was used as a sampling frame with the aim of obtaining interviews with 600 establishments.

Given the impact that non-eligible units included in the sample universe may have on the results, adjustments may be needed when computing the appropriate weights for individual observations. The percentage of confirmed non-eligible units as a proportion of the total number of sampled establishments contacted for the survey was 2% (36 out of 1,567 establishments).

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The structure of the data base reflects the fact that 3 different versions of the survey instrument were used for all registered establishments. Questionnaires have common questions (Core module) and respectfully additional manufacturing and retail specific questions. The eligible manufacturing industries have been surveyed using the Manufacturing questionnaire (includes the Core module, plus manufacturing specific questions). Retail firms have been interviewed using the Retail questionnaire (includes the Core module plus retail specific questions) and the residual eligible services have been covered using the Core module only. Each variation of the questionnaire is identified by the index variable, a0.

All variables are named using, first, the letter of each section and, second, the number of the variable within the section, i.e. a1 denotes section A, question 1 (some exceptions apply due to comparability reasons). Variable names proceeded by a prefix "KEN" and "A2F" indicate questions specific to some countries in Africa, therefore, they may not be found in the implementation of the rollout in other countries. All other suffixed variables are global and are present in all country surveys over the world. All variables are numeric with the exception of those variables with an "x" at the end of their names. The suffix "x" denotes that the variable is alpha-numeric. In the implementation of the Africa roll out 2011 an experiment was carried in some of the countries to better estimate the effects of the use of show cards in data collection. In some of the sections (i.e. innovation) the enumerators were trained to alternatively implement the section using either show cards or asking only the questions without showing any cards, please see the variable "cards".

Cleaning operations

Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate

Survey non-response must be differentiated from item non-response. The former refers to refusals to participate in the survey altogether whereas the latter refers to the refusals to answer some specific questions. Enterprise Surveys suffer from both problems and different strategies were used to address these issues.

Item non-response was addressed by two strategies: a- For sensitive questions that may generate negative reactions from the respondent, such as corruption or tax evasion, enumerators were instructed to collect "Refusal to respond" (-8) as a different option from "Don't know" (-9). b- Establishments with incomplete information were re-contacted in order to complete this information, whenever necessary.

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve strata-specific goals.

The number of contacted establishments per realized interview was 0.41. This number is the result of two factors: explicit refusals to participate in the survey, as reflected by the rate of rejection (which includes rejections of the screener and the main survey) and the quality of the sample frame, as represented by the presence of ineligible units. The number of rejections per contact was 0.20.

Abstract

The documented dataset covers Enterprise Survey (ES) panel data collected in Lesotho in 2009 and 2016, as part of Africa Enterprise Surveys rollout, an initiative of the World Bank. The objective of the Enterprise Survey is to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms.

Enterprise Surveys target a sample consisting of longitudinal (panel) observations and new cross-sectional data. Panel firms are prioritized in the sample selection, comprising up to 50% of the sample in the current wave. For all panel firms, regardless of the sample, current eligibility or operating status is determined and included in panel datasets.

Lesotho ES 2009 was conducted from September 2008 to February 2009, Lesotho ES 2016 was carried out in June - August 2016. Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses. Data was collected using face-to-face interviews.

Data from 301 establishments was analyzed: 90 businesses were from 2009 only, 89 - from 2016 only, and 122 firms were from 2009 and 2016.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs and labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90 percent of the questions objectively measure characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or the universe, covered in the Enterprise Surveys is the non-agricultural private economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the ISIC Revision 3.1 group classification (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this population definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors. Companies with 100% government ownership are not eligible to participate in the Enterprise Surveys.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Two levels of stratification were used in this country: industry and establishment size.

Industry stratification was designed as follows: the universe was stratified as into manufacturing and services industries - Manufacturing (ISIC Rev. 3.1 codes 15 - 37), and Services (ISIC codes 45, 50-52, 55, 60-64, and 72).

For the Lesotho ES, size stratification was defined as follows: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (100 or more employees). Regional stratification did not take place for the Lesotho ES.

In 2009, it was not possible to obtain a single usable frame for Lesotho. Instead frames were obtained from two government branches: the Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Cooperatives and Marketing. Those frames were merged and duplicates removed to provide the frame used for the survey.

In 2016 ES, the sample frame consisted of listings of firms from two sources: for panel firms the list of 151 firms from the Lesotho 2009 ES was used and for fresh firms (i.e., firms not covered in 2009) firm data from Lesotho Bureau of Statistics Business Register, published in August 2015, was used.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The following survey instruments were used for Lesotho ES: - Manufacturing Module Questionnaire - Services Module Questionnaire

The survey is fielded via manufacturing or services questionnaires in order not to ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth. There is a skip pattern in the Service Module Questionnaire for questions that apply only to retail firms.

Cleaning operations

Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate

Survey non-response must be differentiated from item non-response. The former refers to refusals to participate in the survey altogether whereas the latter refers to the refusals to answer some specific questions. Enterprise Surveys suffer from both problems and different strategies were used to address these issues.

Item non-response was addressed by two strategies: a- For sensitive questions that may generate negative reactions from the respondent, such as corruption or tax evasion, enumerators were instructed to collect "Refusal to respond" (-8) as a different option from "Don't know" (-9). b- Establishments with incomplete information were re-contacted in order to complete this information, whenever necessary.

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve strata-specific goals.

Abstract

The survey was conducted in Mauritania between September 2014 to February 2015, as part of Enterprise Surveys roll-out, an initiative of the World Bank. The objective of the survey is to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.

In Mauritania, data from 150 establishments was analyzed. Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses. The data was collected using face-to-face interviews.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs and labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90 percent of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or the universe, covered in the Enterprise Surveys is the non-agricultural private economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the ISIC Revision 3.1 group classification (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this population definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors. Companies with 100% government ownership are not eligible to participate in the Enterprise Surveys.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample for Mauritania was selected using stratified random sampling. Three levels of stratification were used in this country: industry, establishment size, and region.

Industry was stratified into manufacturing and services sectors.

Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition for the Enterprise Surveys: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (more than 99 employees).

Regional stratification for the Maurtiania ES was defined in two regions: Nouadhibou and Nouakchott.

The frame was the Chamber of Commerce List from the Chambre de Commerce d'Industrie et d'Agriculture de Mauritanie (CCIAM) & Centre d'Information pour le Développement Economique et Technique (CIMDET).

The enumerated establishments with five employees or more were then used as the sample frame with the aim of obtaining interviews at 150 establishments.

Given the impact that non-eligible units included in the sample universe may have on the results, adjustments may be needed when computing the appropriate weights for individual observations. The percentage of confirmed non-eligible units as a proportion of the total number of sampled establishments contacted for the survey was 10.6% (36 out of 339 establishments).

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The following survey instruments are available: - Manufacturing Module Questionnaire - Services Module Questionnaire

The survey is fielded via manufacturing or services questionnaires in order not to ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth.

There is a skip pattern in the Service Module Questionnaire for questions that apply only to retail firms.

All variables are named using, first, the letter of each section and, second, the number of the variable within the section, i.e. a1 denotes section A, question 1 (some exceptions apply due to comparability reasons). Variable names proceeded by a prefix "AF4"and "SNG" indicate questions specific to the region or Burundi, therefore, they may not be found in the implementation of the rollout in other countries. All other suffixed variables are global and are present in all country surveys over the world. All variables are numeric with the exception of those variables with an "x" at the end of their names. The suffix "x" denotes that the variable is alpha-numeric.

Cleaning operations

Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate

Survey non-response must be differentiated from item non-response. The former refers to refusals to participate in the survey altogether whereas the latter refers to the refusals to answer some specific questions. Enterprise Surveys suffer from both problems and different strategies were used to address these issues.

Item non-response was addressed by two strategies: a- For sensitive questions that may generate negative reactions from the respondent, such as corruption or tax evasion, enumerators were instructed to collect "Refusal to respond" (-8) as a different option from "Don't know" (-9). b- Establishments with incomplete information were re-contacted in order to complete this information, whenever necessary.

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve strata-specific goals.

The number of interviews per contacted establishments was 44.25%. This number is the result of two factors: explicit refusals to participate in the survey, as reflected by the rate of rejection (which includes rejections of the screener and the main survey) and the quality of the sample frame, as represented by the presence of ineligible units. The number of rejections per contact was 19.47%.

Abstract

This research was conducted in Mexico between August 2010 and June 2011 as part of the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Enterprise Survey 2010, an initiative of the World Bank. Data from 1480 establishments was analyzed. Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses.

The objective of the study is to obtain feedback from enterprises in client countries on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through face-to-face interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is the establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or the universe, covered in the Enterprise Surveys is the non-agricultural economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the ISIC Revision 3.1 group classification (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this population definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The study was conducted using stratified random sampling. Three levels of stratification were used in the sample: firm sector, firm size, and geographic region.

Industry stratification was designed in the following way: the universe was stratified into seven manufacturing industries and one "other" manufacturing category, - two services categories, retail and IT, and one "other" services category. Each of the manufacturing categories had a target of 160 interviews; the "other" manufacturing category and the three services categories all had targets of 120 interviews.

Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition for the Enterprise Surveys: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (more than 99 employees). For stratification purposes, the number of employees was defined on the basis of reported permanent full-time workers. This seems to be an appropriate definition of the labor force since seasonal/casual/part-time employment is not a common practice, except in the sectors of construction and agriculture.

Regional stratification was defined in eight locations (city and the surrounding business area): Mexico City, Estado de Mexico (MAMC), Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Monclova, Veracruz, and Leon.

Ciudad Juarez and Coahuila, which were included in the 2006 round of the Enterprise Surveys, were omitted in 2010 due to security concerns.

For Mexico, two sample frames were used. The first was supplied by the World Bank and consists of enterprises interviewed in Mexico 2006. The World Bank required that attempts should be made to re-interview establishments responding to the Mexico 2006 survey where they were within the selected geographical locations and met eligibility criteria. That sample is referred to as the Panel. The second sample frame was produced from the 2009 Economic Census of INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Geografía e Informática), the national bureau of statistics.

INEGI's database uses the SCIAN 2007 classification for economic activities while the Enterprise Surveys are based on the ISIC classification. Therefore, a conversion between the two classifications was made.

The two sample frames were then used for the selection of a sample with the aim of obtaining interviews with 1,600 establishments with five or more employees.

The quality of the frame was assessed at the outset of the project through visits to a random subset of firms and local contractor knowledge. The sample frame was not immune from the typical problems found in establishment surveys: positive rates of non-eligibility, repetition, non-existent units, etc. In addition, the sample frame contained no telephone/fax numbers so the local contractor had to screen the contacts by visiting them. Due to response rate and ineligibility issues, additional sample had to be extracted by the World Bank in order to obtain enough eligible contacts and meet the sample targets.

Given the impact that non-eligible units included in the sample universe may have on the results, adjustments may be needed when computing the appropriate weights for individual observations. The percentage of confirmed non-eligible units as a proportion of the total number of sampled establishments contacted for the survey was 12.55% (1079 out of 8600).

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The current survey instruments are available: - Core Questionnaire [ISIC Rev.3.1: 45, 50, 51, 52, 55, 60-64, 72]; - Core Questionnaire + Manufacturing Module [ISIC Rev.3.1: 15-37]; - Core Questionnaire + Retail Module [ISIC Rev.3.1: 52]; - Screener Questionnaire.

The "Core Questionnaire" is the heart of the Enterprise Survey and contains the survey questions asked of all firms across the world. There are also two other survey instruments - the "Core Questionnaire + Manufacturing Module" and the "Core Questionnaire + Retail Module." The survey is fielded via three instruments in order to not ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. The questionnaire also assesses the survey respondents' opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.

Cleaning operations

Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate

The number of realized interviews per contacted establishment was 0.17. The estimate is based on the total number of firms contacted including ineligible establishments. This number is the result of two factors: explicit refusals to participate in the survey, as reflected by the rate of rejection (which includes rejections of the screener and the main survey) and the quality of the sample frame, as represented by the presence of ineligible units. The number of rejections per contact was 0.29.

Complete information regarding the sampling methodology, sample frame, weights, response rates, and implementation can be found in "Description of Mexico ES 2010 Implementation" in external resources.

Abstract

The documented dataset covers Enterprise Survey (ES) panel data collected in Yemen in 2010 and 2013, as part of the Middle East and North Africa Enterprise Surveys rollout, an initiative of the World Bank.

New Enterprise Surveys target a sample consisting of longitudinal (panel) observations and new cross-sectional data. Panel firms are prioritized in the sample selection, comprising up to 50% of the sample in the current wave. For all panel firms, regardless of the sample, current eligibility or operating status is determined and included in panel datasets.

Yemen ES 2013 was conducted between March 2013 and July 2014 as part of the joint World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and European Investment Bank (EIB) Enterprise Survey. Yemen ES 2010 was carried out between March and June 2010.

The objective of the Enterprise Survey is to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.

Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses. The data was collected using face-to-face interviews.

Data from 830 establishments was analyzed: 214 businesses were from 2013 ES only, 338 - from 2010 ES only, and 278 firms were from both 2010 and 2013 panels.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or universe of the study, is the non-agricultural economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the group classification of ISIC Revision 3.1: (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities-sectors.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

For Yemen ES 2013, two sample frames were used. The first was supplied by the World Bank and consisted of enterprises interviewed in Yemen in 2010. The World Bank required that attempts were made to re-interview establishments responding to the Yemen 2010 Enterprise Survey where they met eligibility criteria. This sample is referred to as the panel. The second sample frame, referred to as a fresh sample, was obtained from the Central Statistics Office, 2010 Establishment Census, with updates and validation provided by the Yemen Polling Center (YPC).

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The following survey instruments were used for Yemen 2013 ES: - Manufacturing Questionnaire; - Services Questionnaire.

The survey is fielded via manufacturing or services questionnaires in order not to ask questions that are irrelevant to specific types of firms, e.g. a question that relates to production and nonproduction workers should not be asked of a retail firm. In addition to questions that are asked across countries, all surveys are customized and contain country-specific questions. An example of customization would be including tourism-related questions that are asked in certain countries when tourism is an existing or potential sector of economic growth.

The eligible manufacturing industries have been surveyed using the Manufacturing Module Questionnaire (includes a common set of core variables, plus manufacturing specific questions). Eligible service establishments have been covered using the Services Module Questionnaire. Each variation of the questionnaire is identified by the index variable, a0.

All variables are named using, first, the letter of each section and, second, the number of the variable within the section, i.e. a1 denotes section A, question 1. Variable names proceeded by a prefix "MNA" indicate questions specific to the Middle East and North Africa region, therefore, they may not be found in the implementation of the rollout in other countries. All other suffixed variables are global and are present in all economy surveys over the world. All variables are numeric with the exception of those variables with an "x" at the end of their names. The suffix "x" denotes that the variable is alpha-numeric.

The following survey instruments were used for Yemen 2010 ES: - Core Questionnaire + Manufacturing Module [ISIC Rev.3.1: 15-37] - Core Questionnaire + Retail Module [ISIC Rev.3.1: 52] - Core Questionnaire [ISIC Rev.3.1: 45, 50, 51, 55, 60-64, 72]

The "Core Questionnaire" is the heart of the Enterprise Survey and contains the survey questions asked of all firms across the world. There are also two other survey instruments- the "Core Questionnaire + Manufacturing Module" and the "Core Questionnaire + Retail Module."

Cleaning operations

Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate

Survey non-response must be differentiated from item non-response. The former refers to refusals to participate in the survey altogether whereas the latter refers to the refusals to answer some specific questions. Enterprise Surveys suffer from both problems and different strategies were used to address these issues.

Item non-response was addressed by two strategies: a- For sensitive questions that may generate negative reactions from the respondent, such as corruption or tax evasion, enumerators were instructed to collect the refusal to respond as a different option from don’t know. b- Establishments with incomplete information were re-contacted in order to complete this information, whenever necessary.

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve strata-specific goals.