The Survey by IDOS researcher Professor Amirah El-Haddad is the first of its sort to contribute to a systematic understanding of the behavior and nature of industrial firms in Egypt, complementing the picture provided by the series of Labor Market Panel Surveys in Egypt.
IDOS-researcher Amirah El-Haddad sharing some notes on survey questionnaires © Amirah El-Haddad
Since the data was collected during the second wave of COVID-19, two questionnaires were administered, one for firms that are still in operation, and another, very similar one, for firms that have exited the market or have temporarily shut down operations. Amirah El-Haddad designed both questionnaires. The German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) provided the financial contribution under MENA project # 9002101, directly funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The EIFBS dataset enables the examination of a wide spectrum of pertinent issues concerning the goods market in Egypt. The range of topics includes production structures, productivity, firm transitions, labor demand, trade, global value chains (GVCs), industrial zones, industrial policy, employment, informality, resilience, profitability, technology, innovation, IT and government support.
The questionnaire includes 14 modules: basic firm identification data, firm size, firm expectations on recovery and potential exit, changes in firm performance, pandemic transmission channels, ownership and management characteristics, innovation, management practices and use of information technology (IT), production costs, obstacles to operation, exports and global value chains, obstacles to exports, worker training and government support. For better understanding, the dataset allows disaggregation by firm size, employment by gender, formality status and other characteristics of interest.
The survey’s main objective is to provide high quality data that allows the examination of everything around industrial firms in Egypt – in ordinary times but also during a crisis. The dataset is in the public domain, and is now accessible at Egypt, Arab Rep. – Egyptian Industrial Firm Behavior Survey, EIFBS 2020/21 (erfdataportal.com).
