Variables and descriptive statistics
| Variable | Description | Mean | SD | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dependent variable | |||||
| Formal debt (log.) | The logarithm of formal liabilities of firms at year-end | 3.211 | 5.409 | 0.000 | 18.585 |
| Informal debt (log.) | The logarithm of informal liabilities of firms at year-end | 3.637 | 5.185 | 0.000 | 17.737 |
| Owner's equity (log.) | The logarithm of owner's equity funding at year-end | 13.685 | 1.762 | 6.551 | 19.566 |
| Retained earnings (log.) | The logarithm of net profits of firms at year-end | 11.703 | 1.785 | 0.000 | 19.523 |
| Independent variable | |||||
| Corruption amount (log.) | The logarithm of informal payments at year-end | 2.661 | 3.790 | 0.000 | 15.450 |
| Assets (log.) | Firm size, measured by the logarithm of the assets at year-end | 13.780 | 1.757 | 6.908 | 19.567 |
| Revenue (log.) | The logarithm of revenue at year-end | 13.407 | 1.885 | 0.000 | 22.836 |
| Firm age | The difference between the surveyed year and the year of establishment | 15.864 | 10.377 | 1.000 | 72.000 |
| Networking (Yes = 1) | Dummy variable, coded 1 if a firm is a member of at least one business association, 0 otherwise | 0.088 | 0.283 | 0.000 | 1.000 |
| CLUR (Yes = 1) | Dummy variable, coded 1 if a firm holds a Certificate of Land Use Right (CLUR), 0 otherwise | 0.536 | 0.499 | 0.000 | 1.000 |
| Credit history (Yes = 1) | Dummy variable, coded 1 if a firm had borrowed from the main creditor before, 0 otherwise | 0.301 | 0.459 | 0.000 | 1.000 |
| Accounting book (Yes = 1) | Dummy variable, coded 1 if a firm maintained a formal accounting book in accordance with government guidelines, 0 otherwise | 0.320 | 0.467 | 0.000 | 1.000 |
| Gender (Male = 1) | Dummy variable, coded 1 if the owner is male, 0 if female | 0.662 | 0.473 | 0.000 | 1.000 |
| Owner's age | The difference between the surveyed year and the year of birth of the firm's owner or manager | 46.911 | 10.408 | 17.000 | 94.000 |
| Instrumental variables | |||||
| Inspection | Number of times that a firm was inspected last year by government officials for policy compliance, technical compliance and others, averaged by year and province | 0.924 | 1.067 | 0.000 | 3.805 |
| Time to deal with government regulations | Percentage of management's working time spent on dealing with government regulations and officials (including taxes, permits, licenses, business and trade regulations) | 2.540 | 8.556 | 0.000 | 99.000 |
| Perception | Perception of managerial respondents on the Law on Enterprise (1- Good, 2- Average, 3- Poor, 4- No knowledge) | 2.945 | 1.033 | 1.000 | 4.000 |
| Variable | Description | Mean | SD | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Formal debt (log.) | The logarithm of formal liabilities of firms at year-end | 3.211 | 5.409 | 0.000 | 18.585 |
| Informal debt (log.) | The logarithm of informal liabilities of firms at year-end | 3.637 | 5.185 | 0.000 | 17.737 |
| Owner's equity (log.) | The logarithm of owner's equity funding at year-end | 13.685 | 1.762 | 6.551 | 19.566 |
| Retained earnings (log.) | The logarithm of net profits of firms at year-end | 11.703 | 1.785 | 0.000 | 19.523 |
| Corruption amount (log.) | The logarithm of informal payments at year-end | 2.661 | 3.790 | 0.000 | 15.450 |
| Assets (log.) | Firm size, measured by the logarithm of the assets at year-end | 13.780 | 1.757 | 6.908 | 19.567 |
| Revenue (log.) | The logarithm of revenue at year-end | 13.407 | 1.885 | 0.000 | 22.836 |
| Firm age | The difference between the surveyed year and the year of establishment | 15.864 | 10.377 | 1.000 | 72.000 |
| Networking (Yes = 1) | Dummy variable, coded 1 if a firm is a member of at least one business association, 0 otherwise | 0.088 | 0.283 | 0.000 | 1.000 |
| CLUR (Yes = 1) | Dummy variable, coded 1 if a firm holds a Certificate of Land Use Right (CLUR), 0 otherwise | 0.536 | 0.499 | 0.000 | 1.000 |
| Credit history (Yes = 1) | Dummy variable, coded 1 if a firm had borrowed from the main creditor before, 0 otherwise | 0.301 | 0.459 | 0.000 | 1.000 |
| Accounting book (Yes = 1) | Dummy variable, coded 1 if a firm maintained a formal accounting book in accordance with government guidelines, 0 otherwise | 0.320 | 0.467 | 0.000 | 1.000 |
| Gender (Male = 1) | Dummy variable, coded 1 if the owner is male, 0 if female | 0.662 | 0.473 | 0.000 | 1.000 |
| Owner's age | The difference between the surveyed year and the year of birth of the firm's owner or manager | 46.911 | 10.408 | 17.000 | 94.000 |
| Inspection | Number of times that a firm was inspected last year by government officials for policy compliance, technical compliance and others, averaged by year and province | 0.924 | 1.067 | 0.000 | 3.805 |
| Time to deal with government regulations | Percentage of management's working time spent on dealing with government regulations and officials (including taxes, permits, licenses, business and trade regulations) | 2.540 | 8.556 | 0.000 | 99.000 |
| Perception | Perception of managerial respondents on the Law on Enterprise (1- Good, 2- Average, 3- Poor, 4- No knowledge) | 2.945 | 1.033 | 1.000 | 4.000 |
Note(s): This table presents variable description and descriptive statistics based on authors' calculations from the SME Survey
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