Baseline surveys of micro and small enterprises : an overview

Information is difficult to gather for two reasons: (1) there is a strong incentive to escape official government statistics collectors, since most of the firms operate without licenses or permits and avoid some or all forms of taxation and (2) most enterprises keep no written records and many activities are seasonal in nature. This paper describes an approach to information-gathering on small enterprises that has been applied in 11 countries. The survey instrument has two parts. An enumeration questionnaire collects information about the basic characteristics of all existing enterprises, large, medium, and small, as well as those previously run by households in the sample area but currently closed. The second part, a supplementary questionnaire, collects more detailed information about a smaller, random sample of the enterprises. Part one has typically been completed for 5,000-20,000 enterprises, while part two usually has a sample of 220-500 respondents. Findings from the survey provide a picture of the structure of existing enterprises, a baseline for monitoring patterns of change, and a description of constraints and problems.