Abstract

The documented dataset covers Enterprise Survey (ES) panel data collected in Dominican Republic in 2010 and 2016, as part of Latin America and the Caribbean 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. For all panel firms, regardless of the sample, current eligibility or operating status is determined and included in panel datasets.

Dominican Republic ES 2010 was conducted in March - September 2011, ES 2016 was carried out in August 2016 - April 2017. Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses. Data was collected using face-to-face interviews.

Data from 719 establishments was analyzed: 257 businesses were from 2010 ES only, 256 - from 2016 only, and 206 firms were from 2010 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

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

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).

Size stratification was defined as follows: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (100 or more employees).

In 2016, regional stratification was done across three regions: Santo Domingo, Santiago-Puerto Plata-Espaillat and the Rest of the country.

The sample frame consisted of listings of firms from three sources: for panel firms the list of 360 firms from the Dominican Republic 2010 ES was used and for fresh firms (i.e., firms not covered in 2010) a listing of firms obtained from El Directorio de Empresas y Establecimientos (DEE) 2015 and Oficina Nacional de Estadística (ONE), were used.

In 2010, regional stratification was defined in two locations: Santo Domingo and the rest of the country (constituted by urban centers around Santiago and Higuey). For the purposes of sampling, the rest of the country was treated as one area.

The sample frame for 2010 ES was provided by the Oficina Nacional de Estadistica (ONE), dated 2009.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

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.