SMEs, Growth, and Poverty

Thorsten Beck (), Asli Demirguc-Kunt and Ross Levine ()

No 11224, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between the relative size of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector, economic growth, and poverty alleviation using a new database on the share of SME labor in the total manufacturing labor force. Using a sample of 45 countries, we find a strong, positive association between the importance of SMEs and GDP per capita growth. The data do not, however, confidently support the conclusions that SMEs exert a causal impact on growth. Furthermore, we find no evidence that SMEs alleviate poverty or decrease income inequality.

JEL-codes: O1 O2 L11 L25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent
Date: 2005-03
Note: EFG
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