Online Program

Results from the Application of ACS in the Field (308024)

Keywords: Adaptive sampling, Informal enterprises

The World Bank Enterprise Analysis Unit has employed this methodology to survey informal businesses in five economies (Lao, Mozambique, Somalia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) so far. The number of countries to cover is expected to increase, with two more countries currently in the data collection phase. The data collection process consists of listing all informal units in selected squares and conducting and in-depth interview with randomly selected set of firms. The questionnaire used for the in-depth interview covers several topics of importance to policy makers. This session will discuss some of the results of the survey data collected so far, providing an estimate of the number of informal firms operating in these economies, characteristics of these businesses, and some of the challenges they face. Overall, informal firms are small in terms of number of employees, almost twice less productive than their formal counterparts, are younger, mostly operate in services and retail sector and are dominated by female in terms of ownership. Our estimate of the number of informal firms operating in these economies shows some stark figures. For instance, for the three cities covered in Mozambique’s latest survey, there are about 9 informal business for every formal firm, about 1 informal business for every working age population.