Why Don’t Small Firms Merge?

In this project, we intend to leverage a sample of the universe of all garment-making firm owners in a single district capital in Ghana, to ask a seemingly naïve question: Why don't small firms merge? Our research team has conducted data collection with this sample to show that there are hundreds of potential unrealized matches. This project seeks to understand whether short-term subsidies can overcome fixed-cost constraints to realizing these matches, and whether labor productivity gains would result from these types of mergers.