Policy Insights in Firms
J-PAL’s Firms sector focuses on private sector development and job creation. Our policy insights below summarize general lessons from randomized evaluations on strategies to help firms and entrepreneurs grow, create jobs, become more productive, and improve workers' lives and other development outcomes.
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David Atkin (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Jing Cai (University of Maryland), Firms Co-Chairs
Photo: Radiokafka | Shutterstock.com
View: Policy insights by sector
Workplace interventions to improve worker well-being
Last updated: mai 2025
Firm-level interventions aimed at improving the well-being of workers have led to safer workplaces, greater worker health, higher job satisfaction, and lower turnover. In some cases, these programs also increased workers’ productivity, which benefited their employers.
Market access: Connecting firms and entrepreneurs to markets to spur business and job growth
Last updated: septembre 2024
Improved access to markets has often helped small firms in low- and middle-income countries grow by boosting firm revenues and profits. These interventions have been effective because they have led to new sales, helped firms connect with new types of buyers, and increased information sharing and...
Encouraging micro and small enterprises to formalize
Last updated: juillet 2022
Informal firms are defined as those that operate outside of the legal and regulatory system and are therefore not registered for the required business operating licenses. Operating formally may allow firms to grow by expanding their customer base, paying fewer fines, and gaining access to more...
Business Training and Consulting Management practices are thought to play an important role in firm growth, and giving firm owners access to subsidized business training services and consulting could be one way to support their growth. Business training programs tend to teach standard best practices in a classroom setting, such as record keeping and conducting market research, while consultants work closely with firms to identify areas for potential improvement and to support the implementation of recommended actions.
Teaching business skills to support microentrepreneurs
Last updated: septembre 2023
Traditional business skills training programs lead to modest increases in microentrepreneurs’ profits and sales. Alternative training programs can lead to larger impacts, but some programs require more definitive evidence of their effectiveness.
Supporting firm growth through consulting and business training
Last updated: décembre 2019
Economists have long identified large differences in productivity between countries and between firms. One potential explanation for the persistent gap is that some firms have better management practices than others.
Crédit Bien que les ménages défavorisés des pays en développement semblent avoir accès à des investissements à forte rentabilité, ils ont traditionnellement du mal à obtenir des prêts et à accéder à d’autres services financiers. Initialement, les microcrédits ont été conçus pour surmonter les obstacles qui empêchent les institutions financières de prêter de l’argent aux plus démunis. Cependant, ce modèle traditionnel n’a pas d’impact significatif pour l’emprunteur moyen. Des innovations permettant de mieux cibler les entrepreneurs à fort potentiel et de réduire les coûts liés à l’octroi de crédits peuvent aider les prestataires de services financiers à mieux répondre aux besoins des emprunteurs à faibles revenus.
Microcredit: Impacts and promising innovations
Last updated: mai 2023
Findings on the impacts of microcredit continue to evolve. Early evidence from randomized evaluations in low- and middle-income countries showed that the classic microcredit model did not lead to transformative impacts on income or consumption for the average borrower across many contexts. However...
