Do Micro Enterprises Benefit from the ‘Doing Business’ Reforms? The Case of Street-Vending in Tanzania

Abstract

The World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ reforms were originally expected to help the growth and formalisation of SMEs and micro enterprises. The expectations that reforms would support the growth and development of SMEs were challenged by scholars, but the reforms’ impact on the micro enterprises of the poor has received little scholarly attention. Drawing on a desk study and on field studies of street-vendors carried out in Tanzania in 2007 and 2011, this paper argues that the growth and formalisation of micro-businesses are badly served by the ‘Doing Business’ reforms.