How Business Environment Constraints Shape Firm Performance: Evidence From Global Micro-Level Data

Panel A: Outcome Variables
Variables	Mean	Standard Deviation	Minimum	Maximum
Revenue-Based TFP gross output specification (YKLM)	2.025	1.888	–10.9900	8.370
Revenue-Based TFP using value-added specification (VAKL)	1.209	1.741	– 5.5930	8.328
Sales per worker (in USD 2009)	103,938.300	2,382,359.000	0.0065	630 million
Value Added per Worker (in USD 2009)	35,558.420	213,636.300	0.0039	42 million
Sales per labour cost (in USD 2009)	1,421.811	188,118.600	0.0006	51 million

Panel B: Obstacles-Business Environment
Variables	Mean	Standard Deviation	Minimum	Maximum
Access to Finance	1.321	1.297	0	4
Access to Land	0.952	1.253	0	4
Corruption	1.508	1.467	0	4
Electricity	1.538	1.477	0	4
Inadequately educated workforce	1.303	1.277	0	4
Labour regulations	0.983	1.133	0	4
Political Instability	1.483	1.434	0	4
Practices of competitors in the informal sector	1.369	1.330	0	4
Tax Administration	1.278	1.252	0	4
Tax Rates	1.653	1.330	0	4
Transportation	1.136	1.241	0	4

Panel C: Continuous Control Variables
Variables	Mean	Standard Deviation	Minimum	Maximum
Establishment is a part of a large firm (Yes)	0.166	0.372	0	1
Manager if Female (Yes)	0.155	0.362	0	1
The establishment has an internationally-recognized quality certification (Yes)	0.239	0.426	0	1
Ownership (Foreign)	0.098	0.297	0	1
Exporter (Yes)	0.158	0.364	0	1
Years of Manager’s Experience	18.303	11.347	0	69

Panel D: Categorical Control Variables
Firm Size		Sector		Legal Status
Small (< 20)	46.05	Manufacturing	53.50	Shareholding company with shares trade in the stock market	5.27
Medium (20–99)	33.97	Retail	14.70	Shareholding company with non-traded shares or shares traded privately	41.99
Large (100 and over)	19.98	Other Services	31.80	Sole proprietorship	33.36
				Partnership	8.55
				Limited partnership	9.42
				Other	1.41

Tab. 2:

OLS and 2SLS Estimates for Revenue-Based TFP gross output specification (YKLM)

	Access to Finance		Access to Land		Corruption		Electricity		Inadequately educated workforce
	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS
	–0.0214 *** (0.0074)	–0.0859*** (0.0253)	0.0061 (0.0077)	–0.0558 (0.0445)	–0.0040 (0.0073)	–0.0874** (0.0427)	–0.0022 (0.0068)	–0.0607** (0.0291)	–0.0069 (0.0079)	–0.0055 (0.0300)
No. observations	46,701	44,203	46,242	43,774	45,655	43,235	46,840	44,331	46,723	44,245
R-Square	0.0511		0.0509		0.0519		0.0516		0.0515
Centered R-Square		0.0036		0.0044		0.0027		0.0041		0.0052
Weak Instrument F-Statistic Test		1,542.176 [0.000]		182.750 [0.000]		431.831 [0.000]		1,175.789 [0.000]		410.441 [0.000]
Endogeneity Test Hansen J statistic		3.539 [0.170]		1.856 [0.151]		3.546 [0.114]		0.178 [0.672]		6.555 [0.585]

	Labour regulations		Political instability		Practices of competitors in the informal sector		Tax administration		Tax rates
	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS
	–0.0064 (0.0082)	–0.0059 (0.0437)	–0.0053 (0.0076)	–0.0052 (0.0381)	–0.0192** (0.0094)	–0.0267** (0.0127)	–0.0019 (0.0097)	–0.0401 (0.0776)	0.0057 (0.0092)	–0.0372 (0.0486)
No. observations	44,447	42,091	46,274	43,804	29,848	26,831	34,878	27,063	35,317	27,444
R-Square	0.0589		0.0516		0.0521		0.0523		0.0519
Centered R-Square		0.0050		0.0053		0.0049		0.0036		0.0034
Weak Instrument F-Statistic Test		1,059.591 [0.000]		375.666 [0.000]		1,345.510 [0.000]		188.362 [0.000]		498.126 [0.000]
Endogeneity Test Hansen J statistic		3.724 [0.126]		5.539 [0.642]		2.804 [0.181]		5.120 [0.128]		3.994 [0.115]

1 Notes: Standard errors within parentheses, p-values with in the brackets,

1**,** and * indicate significance respectively at 1%,5% and 10% level.

Tab. 3:

OLS and 2SLS Estimates for Revenue-Based TFP using value-added specification (VAKL)

	Access to Finance		Access to Land		Corruption		Electricity		Inadequately educated workforce
	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS
	–0.0306*** (0.0071)	–0.1025*** (0.0234)	–0.0112 (0.0074)	–0.0810* (0.0413)	–0.0114* (0.0060)	–0.0734* (0.0401)	–0.0209*** (0.0063)	–0.1194*** (0.0278)	–0.0182** (0.0072)	–0.0968*** (0.0260)
No. observations	46,701	44,203	46,242	43,774	45,655	43,235	46,840	44,331	46,723	44,245
R-Square	0.0881		0.0880		0.0870		0.0860		0.0878
Centered R-Square		0.0060		0.0064		0.0052		0.0026		0.0056
Weak Instrument F-Statistic Test		1,542.176 [0.000]		182.750 [0.000]		431.831 [0.000]		1,175.789 [0.000]		410.441 [0.000]
Endogeneity Test Hansen J statistic		2.148 [0.341]		7.908 [0.102]		4.097 [0.102]				8.752 [0.363]

	Labour regulations		Political instability		Practices of competitors in the informal sector		Tax administration		Tax rates
	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS
	–0.0147* (0.0081)	–0.0539 (0.0369)	–0.0034 (0.0071)	–0.0381 (0.0356)	–0.0273***+(0.0089)	–0.0965***(0.0295)	–0.0081(0.0090)	–0.051 (0.0686)	–0.0207**(0.0095)	–0.0872(0.0428)
No. observations	44,447	42,091	46,274	43,804	29,848	26,831	34,878	27,063	35,317	27,444
R-Square	0.0862		0.0874		0.0931		0.0900		0.0915
Centered R-Square		0.0066		0.0076		0.0063		0.0079		0.0049
Weak Instrument F-Statistic Test		1,059.591 [0.000]		375.666 [0.000]		1,345.510 [0.000]		188.362 [0.000]		498.126 [0.000]
Endogeneity Test Hansen J statistic		2.898 [0.137]		5.824 [0.603]		2.091 [0.148]		5.824 [0.603]		3.641 [0.162]

1 Notes: Standard errors within parentheses, p-values with in the brackets,

1**,** and * indicate significance respectively at 1%,5% and 10% level.

Tab. 4:

OLS and 2SLS Estimates for Sales per Worker

	Access to Finance		Access to Land		Corruption		Electricity		Inadequately educated workforce
	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS
	–0.0415*** (0.0032)	–0.1105*** (0.0099)	0.0033 (0.0031)	–0.0529*** (0.0166)	–0.0068** (0.0029)	–0.0080* (0.042)	0.0007 (0.0026)	–0.0477*** (0.0128)	–0.0059** (0.0029)	–0.0533*** (0.0101)
No. observations	133,487	124,571	131,131	122,481	130,223	121,632	134,271	125,248	133,644	124,704
R-Square	0.4762		0.4777		0.4765		0.4696		0.4749
Centered R-Square		0.0621		0.0623		0.0643		0.0632		0.0623
Weak Instrument F-Statistic Test		4,428.805 [0.000]		588.254 [0.000]		1,719.615 [0.000]		3,465.356 [0.000]		1,111.047 [0.000]
Endogeneity Test Hansen J statistic		3.189 [0.128]		203.591 [0.000]		104.284 [0.000]		27.720 [0.000]		273.845 [0.000]

	Labour regulations		Political instability		Practices of competitors in the informal sector		Tax administration		Tax rates
	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS
	–0.0048 (0.0334)	–0.0148 (0.0147)	–0.0029 (0.0027)	–0.0302** (0.0146)	–0.0436*** (0.0035)	–0.0466** (0.0224)	–0.0049 (0.0036)	–0.0398 (0.0253)	–0.0051 (0.0034)	–0.0181 (0.0152)
No. observations	127,53	119,233	132,088	123,371	87,534	78,531	101,775	79,767	103,069	80,907
R-Square	0.4811		0.4764		0.4691		0.4870		0.4914
Centered F-Square		0.0666		0.0606		0.0760		0.0715		0.0716
Weak Instrument F-Statistic Test		3,036.967 [0.000]		1,145.409 [0.000]		3,847.520 [0.000]		723.394 [0.000]		1,666.952 [0.000]
Endogeneity Test Hansen J statistic		104.751 [0.000]		172.632 [0.000]		2.792 [0.135]		4.085 [0.130]		1.663 [0.326]

1 Notes:Standard errors within parentheses, p-values with in the brackets,

1**,** and * indicate significance respectively at 1%,5% and 10% level.

Tab. 5:

OLS and 2SLS Estimates for Value Added per Worker

	Access to Finance		Access to Land		Corruption		Electricity		Inadequately educated workforce
	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS
	–0.0468*** (0.0041)	–0.1317*** (0.0127)	–0.0075* (0.0042)	–0.0176* (0.0092)	–0.0145*** (0.0039)	–0.0158* (0.0083)	–0.0006 (0.0035)	0.0168 (0.0157)	–0.0126** (0.0061)	–0.0268** (0.0130)
No. observations	61,060	57,506	60,406	56,905	59,518	56,082	61,335	57,744	61,159	57,609
R-Square	0.5059		0.5070		0.5060		0.4983		0.5064
Centered F-Square		0.0744		0.0776		0.0792		0.0792		0.0774
Weak Instrument F-Statistic Test		2,181.002 [0.000]		278.586 [0.000]		715.186 [0.000]		1,206.877 [0.000]		549.393 [0.000]
Endogeneity Test Hansen J statistic		4.124 [0.110]		83.437 [0.000]		75.158 [0.000]		27.380 [0.000]		3.370 [0.283]

	Labour regulations		Political instability		Practices of competitors in the informal sector		Tax administration		Tax rates
	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS
	–0.0114** (0.0045)	–0.0357* (0.0184)	–0.0203** (0.0094)	–0.0594*** (0.0210)	–0.0468*** (0.0048)	–0.0556*** (0.0155)	–0.0007 (0.0048)	–0.0392 (0.0346)	–0.0094** (0.0046)	–0.0136** (0.0062)
No. observations	58,179	54,835	60,412	56,911	41,133	37,187	46,999	37,164	47,673	37,767
R-Square	0.5075		0.5063		0.5123		0.5157		0.5217
Centered R-Square		0.0806		0.0758		0.0891		0.0803		0.0822
Weak Instrument F-Statistic Test		1,593.589 [0.000]		468.301 [0.000]		2,015.580 [0.000]		300.850 [0.000]		843.046 [0.000]
Endogeneity Test Hansen J statistic		3.598 [0.252]		5.260 [0.173]		0.110 [0.740]		4.537 [0.265]		5.592 [0.202]

1 Notes: Standard errors within parentheses, p-values with in the brackets,

1**,** and * indicate significance respectively at 1%,5% and 10% level.

Tab. 6:

OLS and 2SLS Estimates for Sales per Labour Cost.

	Access to Finance		Access to Land		Corrupt		Electricity		Inadequa educatedtely workforce
	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS
	–0.0268*** (0.0027)	–0.0543*** (0.0088)	–0.0112*** (0.0028)	–0.0191** (0.0082)	–0.0051* (0.0026)	–0.0261* (0.0139)	–0.0052** (0.0024)	–0.0091** (0.042)	–0.0129*** (0.0025)	–0.0528*** (0.0090)
No. observations	125,837	117,777	123,667	115,862	122,895	115,077	126,535	118,374	125,986	117,895
R-Square	0.1412		0.1417		0.1394		0.1406		0.1411
Centered R-Square		0.0285		0.0283		0.0277		0.0283		0.0216
Weak Instrument F-Statistic Test		4,209.424 [0.000]		554.151 [0.000]		1,584.411 [0.000]		2,252.959 [0.000]		1,063.804 [0.000]
Endogeneity Test Hansen J statistic		20.907 [0.000]		1.026 [0.242]		3.637 [0.162]		1.107 [0.212]		25.427 [0.000]

	Labour regulations		Political instability		Practices of competitors in the informal sector		Tax administration		Tax rates
	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS	OLS	2SLS
	–0.0094*** (0.0030)	–0.0387*** (0.0130)	–0.0014 (0.0026)	–0.0086 (0.0134)	–0.0214*** (0.0033)	–0.0258** (0.0117)	–0.0147* (0.0084)	–0.0381* (0.0227)	0.0046 (0.0032)	–0.0128 (0.0136)
No. observations	120,446	112,850	124,604	116,672	81,298	73,005	94,775	74,146	96	75,224
R-Square	0.1426		0.1394		0.1369		0.1370		0.1378
Centered R-Square		0.0288		0.0285		0.0272		0.0282		0.0297
Weak Instrument F-Statistic Test		2,940.862 [0.000]		1,075.583 [0.000]		3,643.219 [0.000]		682.289 [0.000]		1,591.964 [0.000]
Endogeneity Test Hansen J statistic		19.566 [0.000]		24.190 [0.000]		62.452 [0.000]		5.329 [0.136]		30.816 [0.136]

1 Notes: Standard errors within parentheses, p-values with in the brackets,

1**,** and * indicate significance respectively at 1%,5%and 10% level.

Tab. 7:

OLS Estimates for the Control Variables

	DV: TFPR-YKLM	DV: TFPR-VAKL	DV: Sales per Worker	DV: Value Added per Worker	DV: Sales per Labour Cost
Log Firm Age Linear Term	–0.9098 (1.0640)	–1.656 (1.0180)	–0.9978 (1.0330)	0.0856*** (0.0288)	0.1151*** (0.0191)
Log Firm Age Quadratic Term				–0.0164*** (0.0059)	–0.0210*** (0.0039)
Establishment is a part of a large firm (Yes)	0.0513*(0.0276)	0.1152*** (0.0242)	0.2120*** (0.0106)	0.1579*** (0.0142)	–0.1368*** (0.0095)
The establishment has an internationally-recognized quality certification (Yes)	0.0541** (0.0240)	0.1245*** (0.0211)	0.3251*** (0.0092)	0.3075*** (0.0113)	0.1690*** (0.0083)
Ownership (Foreign)	0.0747* (0.0386)	0.0595* (0.0318)	0.2847*** (0.0141)	0.2760*** (0.0186)	0.0763*** (0.0125)
Exporter (Yes)	0.0179 (0.0264)	0.1477*** (0.0225)	0.1379*** (0.0103)	0.1503*** (0.0124)	0.0565*** (0.0096)
Female Top Manager (Yes)	–0.0966*** (0.0269)	–0.1207*** (0.0236)	–0.1562*** (0.0100)	–0.1455*** (0.0143)	–0.0665*** (0.0089)
Log Years of Manager’s Experience	0.0426*(0.0242)	0.0144 (0.0125)	0.0684*** (0.0058)	0.0178** (0.0071)	0.0275*** (0.0047)
Firm Size-Reference category Small (<20)
Medium (20–99)	0.1293*** (0.0217)	0.0560*** (0.0201)	0.0889*** (0.0083)	0.0951*** (0.0109)
Large (100 and over)	0.0734*** (0.0295)	0.1661*** (0.0259)	0.0747*** (0.0117)	0.0939*** (0.0147)
Sector-Reference category Manufacturing
Retail			0.4170*** (0.0112)		0.3751*** (0.0106)
Other Services			0.2380*** (0.0285)		0.0529*** (0.0076)
Legal Status-Reference category Shareholding company with shares trade in the stock market
Shareholding company with non-traded shares or shares traded privately	–0.1711*** (0.0463)	–0.1268*** (0.0415)	0.0523*** (0.0178)	–0.0681*** (0.0226)	0.0405** (0.0157)
Sole proprietorship	–0.2341*** (0.0482)	–0.1169*** (0.0446)	–0.3580*** (0.0196)	–0.4064*** (0.0252)	–0.1412*** (0.0172)
Partnership	–0.1688*** (0.0529)	–0.0382 (0.0491)	–0.1879*** (0.0221)	–0.2544*** (0.0283)	–0.0127 (0.0195)
Limited partnership	–0.1578*** (0.0538)	–0.0343 (0.0491)	–0.0410* (0.0214)	–0.1330*** (0.0272)	0.0153 (0.0189)
Other	–0.2845** (0.0926)	–0.1675** (0.0838)	–0.0051 (0.0035)	–0.0597 (0.0418)	–0.0014 (0.0328)

1 Notes: DV denotes dependent variable. Standard errors within parentheses, p-values within the brackets,

1***, ** and * indicate significance respectively at 1%, 5% and 10% level.

References

Authors

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2025-0008 | Journal eISSN: 1804-1663 | Journal ISSN: 1213-2446

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Language: English

Page range: 123 - 146

Published on: May 13, 2026

Published by: Mendel University in Brno

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

business environment,

JEL:

D22,

D24,

L25,

O12,

O43,

G32

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Political economics,

Economic theory, systems and structures

© 2026 Eleftherıos Gıovanıs, Öznur Özdamar, published by Mendel University in Brno
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Volume 25 (2025): Issue 2 (December 2025)