the U.S. Moreover, our datasets do not present any obvious censoring or threshold for inclusion in the census. To the best of our knowledge, our contribution is the first that encompasses the entire manufacturing sectors—including informal establishments—of Sub-Saharan African countries in a comparative fashion.<sup>8</sup>

# **Summary of Firm-level Data from Selected Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa**

**Burkina Faso.** The data comes from the census conducted in 2016 by Institut National de la Statistique et de la Démographie (INSD). It covers establishments mainly in the non-agriculture sector and contains records such as an establishment’s industry classification, age, employment, accounting practices, state ownership, and foreign equity. Establishments are classified into formal and informal depending on whether they have a registration number (with mobile trade and mobile credit, tax identification number) and use SYSCOA as an accounting standard.<sup>9</sup>

**Cameroon.** The data is obtained from the first Recensement Général des Entreprises (RGE) conducted in 2009 by the Institut National de la Statistique (INS). The RGE covers all businesses of the modern sector (that is, excluding non-commercial agriculture) with a physical location, specifically excluding the street trading industry (hawkers, peddlers, and others), the (car and bike) taxi industry, and the callbox industry. It provides detailed information such as registration with administrative agencies, tax payment, accounting practices, age, employment size, state ownership, and foreign equity. In the census, formal establishments are considered formal if they prepare a Statistical and Fiscal Declaration (DSF) or those that do not prepare a DSF but which keep an operating account and a partial account of balance sheets.<sup>10</sup>

**Ghana.** The data comes from the 2014 Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES) conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service. The IBES is an economic census of all business establishments (registered and unregistered) in the non-agriculture sectors of the economy. It has detailed information about registration with administrative agencies, tax payment, accounting practices, age, employment size, state ownership, and foreign equity. The data contain records of an establishment’s registration status with government agencies, and formality is defined based on registration status with Registrar General’s Department (RGD) and keeping formal accounts.<sup>11</sup>

**Rwanda.** The source of the data is the 2014 Establishment Census (EC) conducted by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR). The EC constitutes a virtually exhaustive business registry

> 8 Our dataset is more comprehensive by enumerating all establishments. For example, Hsieh and Olken (2014) have census establishments with 20 or more employees, but they have a sample of those with 20 or fewer workers in the case of Indonesian manufacturing. Similarly, for Indian manufacturing, their dataset comprises a complete enumeration of formal establishments with 100 or more workers and a sample of formal establishments with fewer than 100 workers and informal ones. The exception is the Mexican manufacturing data, which comprises all establishments with fixed locations.

> 9 National Institute of Statistics and Demography (INSD). Analysis report of the XVII Industrial and Commercial Census. November 2018.

> 10 National Institute of Statistics of Cameroon (INS). General Census of Enterprises In 2009. September 2010.

> 11 Ghana Statistical Service. Integrated Business Establishment Survey: Summary Report. September 2015.

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