Costa Rica

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Costa Ricas business registryDirectory of
institutional units and establishments

• Contacts
• Odilia Bravo odilia.bravo_at_inec.go.cr
• David Bullón david.bullon_at_comex.go.cr

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Overview
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Origins and purpose
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• Origins
• By law INEC is in charge of collecting and
  managing census data.
• For many years lack of an authoritative source of
  firm level data.
• In 2008 the Central Bank funded INEC to create
  the business registry.
• Since 2010, the Ministry of Finance has funded
  INEC directly to update the registry annually.
• Purpose
• Organized register of enterprises and
  establishments that reside in the country with
  variables that characterize them in terms ofID
  number, location, size, and type of economic
  activity.
• Required for Central Banks project to update the
  base year.
• Sampling frame for various surveys.

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Basic structure of business register
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• Hierarchical structure of registry
• Unique ID based on national ID numbers
• Non-incorporated 9 digit personal ID number (for
  all legal documents)
• Incorporated 10 digit firm ID number
  (for all legal documents)
• But firms often use several firm
  ID numbers

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Variables with full coverage
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Firm
Establishment
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Data sources
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Data provided
Contributors
Survey based data
Admin. data
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Coverage and updating
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• Business registry created in 2008
• 45,888 firms, 6,779 establishments 2008.
• Census of 52 of firms using field survey in the
  39 districts.
• Administrative records covered the remaining 434
  districts.
• Annual updating (efficient and cost effective)
• 48,981 firms, 10,099 establishments and 796
  groups in 2012.
• Identify new firms with updated administrative
  records.
• Phone interviews to 40 of registry new firms
  identified with administrative data.
• Census of 1-2 districts with significant
  variation in number of firms

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Quality control new firms from administrative
data
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• All records go through the following data
  cleaning process
• Correct / exclude out-of-range data
• Convert activity code from ISIC Rev. 3 to Rev. 4
• Exclusion of records with missing identifying
  info.
• Validation of length of ID numbers
• Verification of the existence of business using
  unique ID number
• Exclude units that do not meet the criteria
  (e.g., central and local government, autonomous
  institutions, education boards, etc.)

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Quality control survey data
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• Census data collected with PDAs and survey data
  collected by phone is submitted to the following
  controls
• Real-time Automatic filters to catch mistakes.
• Biweekly Calls to verify surveyors work.
• Monthly Verify ISIC code and quality of
  descriptions for 30 of registers covered.
• Yearly Correct all error messages generated.

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Uses Dissemination through annual bulletin
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• Number of enterprises by economic activity, size
  or geographic area
• Changes in the most important variables
• Dynamic analysis mergers, closings, births and
  temporary cessation
• Employment generated by new companies
• Available online

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Uses Projects to characterize firms
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• INEC supports organizations by creating samples
  and performing surveys
• National Bank of Costa Rica Survey of SMEs
• Trade Promotion Agency Census of exporters
• Ministry of Economy Businesses near coasts and
  ports
• Nature of support
• Selection of sample frame
• Feedback on quality of data
• Access to business registry and economic activity
  finder
• Technical assistance for the analysis of database
  and classification of economic activities

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Uses Micro-linking project
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• Research with COMEX and IDE-JETRO
• Linking business registry to other sources
• Export data
• Free Trade Agreement utilization for exports
• Productivity data for multinationals
• Policy-oriented research
• Impact of trade and investment policy on the
  development of clusters
• Firm-level econometric analysis

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Costa Ricas Business RegistryDirectory of
Institutional Units and Establishments

• Contacts
• Odilia Bravo odilia.bravo_at_inec.go.cr
• David Bullón david.bullon_at_comex.go.cr