Surviving Firms of the Syrian Arab Republic
This paper details the results from the first comprehensive survey of private firms across major urban areas in the Syrian Arab Republic -- including Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Latakia, and Damascus -- since the conflict began in 2011. This builds on the World Bank's Enterprise Survey from 2009 and attempts to survey each of the 508 firms from 2009 again. The survey highlights the major challenges facing firms in Syria today, such as access to electricity, fuel, and water. Yet, loss of workers, managers, and supply chain relationships are also notably severe. Rebuilding the social and human capital of Syria may be even more difficult than the bricks and mortar. The paper also identifies the ways firms have been affected in their prices, sales, supply chains, taxation, and costs as well as how they have adapted in financing and employment. These constraints and impacts are also analyzed at the subnational level and across sectors. Firms in Aleppo stand out for their uniquely difficult challenges and responses that are sometimes at odds with the rest of the country. Finally, the paper analyzes firm exit from 2009 to 2017 and finds that higher productivity firms from 2009 were more likely to survive, except in Aleppo where the reverse holds. The paper hypothesizes that productive firms facing the particularly severe destruction in Aleppo may have made a different calculation compared with productive firms elsewhere: to use their capabilities to leave rather than to use their capabilities to weather the storm.
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018-04
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| Subjects: | FIRM DEATH, ENTERPRISE SURVEY, CONFLICT, SURVIVAL, BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT, ACCESS TO FINANCE, ACCESS TO SERVICES, WATER SUPPLY, ACCESS TO WATER, URBAN UTILITIES, SUPPLY CHAINS, FIRM EXIT, FIRM PRODUCTIVITY, COMPETITIVENESS, MIGRATION, |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/564631522691841379/Surviving-firms-of-the-Syrian-Arab-Republic-a-rapid-assessment https://hdl.handle.net/10986/29610 |
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| Summary: | This paper details the results from the
first comprehensive survey of private firms across major
urban areas in the Syrian Arab Republic -- including Aleppo,
Homs, Hama, Latakia, and Damascus -- since the conflict
began in 2011. This builds on the World Bank's
Enterprise Survey from 2009 and attempts to survey each of
the 508 firms from 2009 again. The survey highlights the
major challenges facing firms in Syria today, such as access
to electricity, fuel, and water. Yet, loss of workers,
managers, and supply chain relationships are also notably
severe. Rebuilding the social and human capital of Syria
may be even more difficult than the bricks and mortar. The
paper also identifies the ways firms have been affected in
their prices, sales, supply chains, taxation, and costs as
well as how they have adapted in financing and employment.
These constraints and impacts are also analyzed at the
subnational level and across sectors. Firms in Aleppo stand
out for their uniquely difficult challenges and responses
that are sometimes at odds with the rest of the country.
Finally, the paper analyzes firm exit from 2009 to 2017 and
finds that higher productivity firms from 2009 were more
likely to survive, except in Aleppo where the reverse holds.
The paper hypothesizes that productive firms facing the
particularly severe destruction in Aleppo may have made a
different calculation compared with productive firms
elsewhere: to use their capabilities to leave rather than to
use their capabilities to weather the storm. |
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