Firm Capabilities

The firm capabilities programme examines the existence of and reasons for heterogeneity in productivity between different firms in different countries, to understand the causes of the productivity shortfall of firms in developing countries and to find ways of boosting competitiveness in the manufacturing sector. Job creation is another policy priority.

A first step to answer these questions is to document the existence of this heterogeneity at the firm level to develop a portrait of how they are different and evolving. Longitudinal cross country information is sparse because country data is generally not focused on firms. Thus the programme has identified two priority areas; we will aim to create a new repository of data on the role that firms have in economic development, and will support novel research into the sources of heterogeneity in performance between firms in different countries.