The heterogeneous growth effects of the business environment: Firm-level evidence for a global sample of cities

Using firm-level data covering 709 cities in 128 countries, this paper examines the role of a comprehensive list of business environment variables at the subnational level in explaining firm employment and productivity growth. The analysis finds basic protection, access to finance and infrastructure, and the existence of a strong agglomeration environment to be critically important. By contrast, human capital and a list of refined business environment variables related to labor regulations, tax, and land access are found to be relatively unimportant. The analysis also finds that the effects of the business environment vary according to firm size, age, sector affiliation, and the host country's level of development. The research suggests that it pays to be comprehensive about the business environment and that attention to heterogeneity is important.