TY  - JOUR
AU  - Beck,Thorsten
AU  - Demirguc-Kunt,Asli
AU  - Levine,Ross
TI  - SMEs, Growth, and Poverty
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11224
PY  - 2005
Y2  - March 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11224
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11224.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Thorsten Beck
The World Bank
1818 H Street N.W.
Mail Stop MC 3-307
Washington, D.C. 20433
E-Mail: tbeck@worldbank.org

Asli Demirguc-Kunt
World Bank
1818 H Street
Washington, DC  20433
E-Mail: ademirguckunt@worldbank.org

Ross Levine
Department of Economics
Brown University
64 Waterman Street
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401/863-2170
E-Mail: ross_levine@brown.edu
AB  - This paper explores the relationship between the relative size of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector, economic growth, and poverty alleviation using a new database on the share of SME labor in the total manufacturing labor force. Using a sample of 45 countries, we find a strong, positive association between the importance of SMEs and GDP per capita growth. The data do not, however, confidently support the conclusions that SMEs exert a causal impact on growth. Furthermore, we find no evidence that SMEs alleviate poverty or decrease income inequality.
ER  -