While micro and small firms account for a big share of overall employment in Latin America and the Caribbean, they often struggle to grow in part because they lack skills or encounter other difficulties in selling their goods and services to buyers. This limits the size of markets they can access. For example, data from the World Enterprise Surveys shows that only 6.7% of … [Read more...] about Can Improving Market Access Spur Small Business Growth and Jobs in Latin America?
Jing Cai
Jing Cai is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland. She serves as Co-Chair of J-PAL's Firms sector. Her research areas are development economics and household finance. Her current research examines the growth of micro-enterprises and SMEs, impacts of tax incentives on firm behavior, and diffusion and impacts of financial innovations in developing countries. Jing Cai is a Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), an affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), and an affiliated professor of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). She currently serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Development Economics and the Economic Development and Cultural Change. She received her PhD in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 2012. In addition to serving as Co-Chair of J-PAL's Firms Sector, Jing has served on the review board of J-PAL's Jobs and Opportunity Initiative.