Services Inputs and Firm Productivity in Sub-Suharan Africa: Evidence from Firm-Level Data
This paper investigates the relationship between the productivity of African manufacturing firms and their access to services inputs. We use data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey for over 1,000 firms in ten Sub-Saharan African countries to calculate the total factor productivity of firms. The Enterprise Surveys also contain unique measures of firms' access to communications, electricity and financial services. The availability of these measures at the firm level, both as subjective and objective indicators, allows us to exploit the variation in services performance at the sub-national regional level. Furthermore, by using the regional variation in services performance, we are also able to address concerns about the possible endogeneity of the services variables. Our results show a significant and positive relationship between firm productivity and service performance in all three services sectors analysed. The paper thus provides support for the argument that improvements in services industries contribute to enhancing the performance of downstream economic activities, and thus are an essential element of a strategy for promoting growth and reducing poverty.
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article biblioteca |
| Language: | EN |
| Published: |
2008
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| Subjects: | Production, Cost, Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity, Capacity D240, Welfare and Poverty: Government Programs, Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs I380, Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and Scope L250, Industry Studies: Manufacturing: General L600, Industrialization, Manufacturing and Service Industries, Choice of Technology O140, Economic Development: Human Resources, Human Development, Income Distribution, Migration O150, |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4701 |
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