Anna Luisa Paffhausen

• In this thesis I empirically assess a wide range of constraints faced by different types of entrepreneurs in developing countries and the effectiveness of different policy interventions aimed at removing them. Thereby, the thesis contributes to the growing literature on enterprises and entrepreneurial activities in developing countries, by producing valuable evidence on which are the constraints faced by which types of entrepreneurs in starting, surviving, and growing, as well as on which interventions work, and for whom. The thesis hence provides important insights for policy formulation aimed at inclusive growth. It consists of three self-contained papers, which put different emphasis on three different areas in which important research gaps remain. The first paper, which is presented in chapter 2, focuses on interventions aimed at removing firm-level shocks. It consists of a systematic review of evaluations of targeted programs and broader policies that intend to promote micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) inIn this thesis I empirically assess a wide range of constraints faced by different types of entrepreneurs in developing countries and the effectiveness of different policy interventions aimed at removing them. Thereby, the thesis contributes to the growing literature on enterprises and entrepreneurial activities in developing countries, by producing valuable evidence on which are the constraints faced by which types of entrepreneurs in starting, surviving, and growing, as well as on which interventions work, and for whom. The thesis hence provides important insights for policy formulation aimed at inclusive growth. It consists of three self-contained papers, which put different emphasis on three different areas in which important research gaps remain. The first paper, which is presented in chapter 2, focuses on interventions aimed at removing firm-level shocks. It consists of a systematic review of evaluations of targeted programs and broader policies that intend to promote micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries, and assesses which of these interventions are effective in creating jobs. The paper presented in chapter 3 considers death of small, mainly one-person and household businesses. Together with my co-author, I collated panel data on more than 14,000 small firms from 16 firm panel surveys conducted in 12 developing countries. We use this unique panel dataset to provide answers to the following questions: What is the rate of firm death over different horizons? Which firms are more likely to die? Why do they die and what happens afterwards? In chapter 4, I take a closer look at household-level shocks and non-separability between the household and the firm, and assess whether extending health insurance to previously uninsured households leads to increased investment in productive activities, by assessing the impact of a large national health insurance scheme, the Mexican Seguro Popular, on investment in productive agricultural and non-agricultural assets and activities in rural areas. Using panel data from the Mexican rural evaluation surveys of the Oportunidades cash transfer program, I estimate the effect of the program on out-of-pocket health care expenditures and productive assets and account for possible self-selection of households into the program, using difference-in-differences estimation, as well as a propensity score matched difference-in-differences specification.…