agencies or administrative business register. For Brazil, the sampling frame was based on the 2017 _Rela ̧c ̃ao Anual de Informa ̧c ̃oes Sociais_ (RAIS). RAIS is an employer-employee administrative registry database managed by the Ministry of Labour (MTE), which covers all Brazilian formal firms. For Senegal, the sampling frame was based on the 2016 _Recensement G ́en ́eral des Entreprises_ (RGE) from the _Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la D ́emographie_ (ANSD). The RGE covers all establishments operating in Senegal. For Vietnam, the sampling is based on the 2018 Establishment Census from the General Statistical Office (GSO), which covers all registered establishments operating in Vietnam.

The universe of study, which defined the population of firms included in the FAT survey, covers firms with 5 or more employees in agriculture, manufacturing, and services. The sector classification is based on the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), Rev. 4. More specifically, our sample includes firms from the following ISIC rev 4 sectors: Agriculture (ISIC 01, from Group A); All manufacturing sectors (Group C); Construction (Group F), Wholesale and retail trade (Group G), Transportation and storage (Group G), Accommodation and food service activities (Group I), Information and communication (Group J), Financial and insurance activities (Group K), Financial services (ISIC, 64), Travel agency (ISIC 79, from group N), Health services (ISIC 86, from group Q), and Repair services (ISIC 95, from Group S).

We exclude micro-firms with fewer than 5 employees. Micro firms, particularly in developing countries, are less likely to be captured in the sampling frame, due to informality, and they would require further adjustment in the survey instrument and sampling design.<sup>52</sup> This decision is aligned with other firm-level standardized surveys with comparability across countries. The World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) also uses a threshold of 5 employees. The World Management Survey (WMS) uses a threshold of 50 employees. In the case of Senegal, our sampling frame includes all firms registered in the establishment census of ANSD.<sup>53</sup> The RGE in Senegal has 407,882 businesses, but most of them (82%) refers to individual businesses or self-employees. Firms with 5+ employees represent 6% of total, but they are responsible for about 50% of total employment and 81% of total sales in the RGE database. For Brazil, the RAIS has 85,441 establishments formally registered in Cear ́a. Establishments with 5+ employees represent about 39% of total establishments and 93% of total employment.

> 52Establishments below this threshold often lack the organizational structure to respond to some of the questions.

> 53The ANSD uses a definition of formality based on the accounting system used by the firms. According to their definition, formal firms are those with an accounting system that is compatible with the West African Accounting System (SYSCOA). Our sample includes all firms with 5 or more employees registered under RGE, given that they tend to be also registered through the _num ́ero d’Identification nationale des entreprises et associations_ (NINEA), which makes them more comparable with formal firms in Brazil and Vietnam.

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