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Enterprise Survey 2010
Belize, 2011
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BLZ_2010_ES_v01_M_WB
Belize BLZ
This research is an Indicator Survey conducted in Belize between August and October 2011 as part of the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Enterprise Survey 2010, an initiative of the World Bank. An Indicator Survey, which is similar to an Enterprise Survey, is implemented for smaller economies where the sampling strategies inherent in an Enterprise Survey are often not applicable due to the limited universe of firms.
In Belize, data from 150 establishments was analyzed. Stratified random sampling was used to select the surveyed businesses.
The objective of the survey is to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through face-to-face interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.
Questionnaire topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures.
The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment. An establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.
Geographic Unit
Regions covered are selected based on the number of establishments, contribution to employment, and value added. In most cases these regions are metropolitan areas and reflect the largest centers of economic activity in a country.
The whole population, or the universe, covered in the Enterprise Surveys is the non-agricultural economy. It comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the ISIC Revision 3.1 group classification (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this population definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors.
The study was conducted using stratified random sampling. Three levels of stratification were used in the sample: firm sector, firm size, and geographic region.
Industry stratification for the Indicator Surveys is designed to obtain 75 interviews in manufacturing and 75 interviews in service sectors. Frequently, due to the size of the manufacturing sector, less than the full 75 interviews are achieved.
Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition for the Enterprise Surveys: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (more than 99 employees). For stratification purposes, the number of employees was defined on the basis of reported permanent full-time workers. This seems to be an appropriate definition of the labor force since seasonal/casual/part-time employment is not a common practice, except in the sectors of construction and agriculture.
In Belize, due to the size of the sample target, the entire country was treated as one geographical location.
The sample frame for Belize was produced from the following collection of sources: The Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), GMDU.net, Alibaba.com, TradeBoss.com, CaribSeek.com, Belize.net, the Belize Gateway, Ambergiscaye.com, the Belize Accommodation Directory (travelbelize.org), BelizeBusiness.com, the Belize Yellow Pages, and Manta.com.
The sample frame was then used for the selection of a sample with the aim of obtaining interviews with 150 establishments with five or more employees.
The quality of the frame was assessed at the outset of the project through visits to a random subset of firms and local contractor knowledge. The sample frame was not immune from the typical problems found in establishment surveys: positive rates of non-eligibility, repetition, non-existent units, etc. In addition, the sample frame contains no telephone/fax numbers so the local contractor had to screen the contacts by visiting them. Due to response rate and ineligibility issues, additional sample had to be extracted by the World Bank in order to obtain enough eligible contacts and meet the sample targets.
Given the impact that non-eligible units included in the sample universe may have on the results, adjustments may be needed when computing the appropriate weights for individual observations. The percentage of confirmed non-eligible units as a proportion of the total number of sampled establishments contacted for the survey was 5.67% (17 out of 300).
The number of realized interviews per contacted establishments was 0.50. The estimate is based on the total number of firms contacted including ineligible establishments. This number is the result of two factors: explicit refusals to participate in the survey, as reflected by the rate of rejection (which includes rejections of the screener and the main survey) and the quality of the sample frame, as represented by the presence of ineligible units. The number of rejections per contact was 0.38.
Complete information regarding the sampling methodology, sample frame, weights, response rates, and implementation can be found in "Description of Belize ES 2010 Implementation" in external resources.
Weighting
For some units it was impossible to determine eligibility because the contact was not successfully completed. Consequently, different assumptions as to their eligibility result in different universe cells' adjustments and in different sampling weights. Three sets of assumptions were considered:
a - Strict assumption: eligible establishments are only those for which it was possible to directly determine eligibility. The resulting weights, which include adjustments applied to panel firms, are in the variable w_strict_fresh.
b - Median assumption: eligible establishments are those for which it was possible to directly determine eligibility and those that rejected the screener questionnaire or an answering machine or fax was the only response. The resulting weights are included in the variable w_median_fresh.
c - Weak assumption: in addition to the establishments included in points a and b, all establishments for which it was not possible to contact or that refused the screening questionnaire are assumed eligible. This definition includes as eligible establishments with dead or out of service phone lines, establishments that never answered the phone, and establishments with incorrect addresses for which it was impossible to find a new address. Under the weak assumption only observed non-eligible units are excluded from universe projections. The resulting weights are included in the variable w_weak_fresh.
The current survey instruments are available:
- Services Questionnaire;
- Manufacturing Questionnaire;
- Screener Questionnaire.
The Services Questionnaire is administered to the establishments in the services sector. The Manufacturing Questionnaire is built upon the Services Questionnaire and adds specific questions relevant to manufacturing.
The survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country's business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents' opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.
EEC Canada
Aggregate indicators based on Enterprise Survey data are available to the public at https://www.enterprisesurveys.org.
The use of this dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the identification of the Primary Investigator (including country name)
- the full title of the survey and its acronym (when available), and the year(s) of implementation
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download (for datasets disseminated online).
The World Bank. Belize Enterprise Survey (ES) 2010, Ref. BLZ_2010_ES_v01_M_WB. Dataset downloaded from [URL] on [date].
DDI_BLZ_2010_ES_v01_M_WB
Antonina Redko DECDG, World Bank DDI Documentation
Date of Production