فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

This study investigates the employment effects of business environment reforms using firm-level data from Nigeria. While regulatory reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business are widely promoted as drivers of private-sector development, evidence on their labor market impact remains inconclusive in developing economies. Employing a quasi-experimental framework, we estimate treatment effects using Regression Adjustment, Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment, and Nearest-Neighbor Matching estimators. The results indicate that firms benefiting from reform-related improvements exhibit significantly higher labor employment compared to non-treated firms, with findings robust across specifications. These effects are particularly pronounced among formal-sector firms, suggesting that institutional quality mediates the employment response to reforms. The study contributes to the political economy of development by providing causal evidence on how regulatory reforms translate into real-sector outcomes in an emerging economy. The findings have important implications for policymakers seeking to promote job creation through business environment reforms.