Abstract
In this dissertation, I examine the associations between various firm and owner characteristics, and investment climate measures on different aspects of firm performance. I use unique and well-designed World Bank survey datasets on formal and informal firms to perform several empirical analyses to answer the primary questions of interest. This dissertation consists of three chapters. The first chapter explores and identifies the determinants of corporate R & D investment decisions across Indian firms, such as, property rights protection, related governmental corruptions (e.g., informal payments to government officials), firm ownership structure and access to finance. The second chapter examines the relationships between several investment climate measures and exit decisions of firms across Latin American countries, and find that weaknesses in investment climate has an adverse effect on firm dynamics and composition of surviving firms. The third chapter studies the effect of female ownership on various indicators of firm performance and willingness to register for informal (un-registered) firms across several developing countries. Overall, I find that the various measures of investment climate and institutional development, and female ownership have statistically significant and robust associations with various indicators of firm performance, investment decisions and survival. Several important interaction effects are also identified in these empirical analyses. The findings in this dissertation can help policy makers to understand the determinants and crucial drivers of firm performance across developing countries and within each country. This in turn may help them to design and implement policies that can positively impact firm performance (overall and for female-owned firms) and growth. Through this study, policy makers can also have a better understanding of the performance differences among male-owned and female-owned firms in the informal sector that may aid in formulating appropriate policy measures targeted towards female-owned firms and female entrepreneurs in the informal economy.