bigger firms are higher productivity; helping them get big is a great economic intervention

a country's economy is basically the sum of its firms (What about self employment though? Especially common in developing countries iirc) There are lots of other factors that matter for economic growth, but this is undeniably big, and way more concrete than "institutions"

In rich countries, firms grow much faster (or die) This is important (Although unclear if their data corrects for many people being self employed, again. Although maybe this is part of the point -- you don't hit specialization or economies of scale if everyone just has a small family business)

Oop yeah 55% of employment in developing countries is self employment. >95% of firms

Microfinance hasn't proven to be very effective apparently. That's big, good to know

Many "self employed" people in developing countries act similar to unemployed people, which is telling. (Not so in developed countries)

One reason firms are small is that transportation is expensive, which is a strong bias for local sources Also low information spread, which keeps lower quality producers in business because people don't know to shop around

"Fragmented markets possibly the biggest barrier to growth"

Leapfrogging — where firms go from primitive technology straight to advanced technology —doesn't seem to work.

Just learning good management practices makes a big difference in productivity, even for long running firms