The Investment Climate Surveys (ICS) were conducted by the World Bank and its partners across all geographic regions and covered firms of all sizes in many industries. The ICS collected a wide array of qualitative and quantitative information through face-to-face interviews with managers and owners regarding the investment climate in their country and the productivity of their firms. Topics covered in the ICS included the obstacles to doing business, infrastructure, finance, labor, corruption and regulation, contract enforcement, law and order, innovation and technology, and firm productivity. Taken together, the qualitative and quantitative data helped connect a country’s investment climate characteristics with firm productivity and performance. Firm-level surveys have been administered since 1998 by different units within the World Bank. Since 2005-06, most data collection efforts have been centralized within the Enterprise Analysis Unit (FPDEA). Enterprise Surveys, a replacement for Investment Climate Surveys, are now conducted by the Enterprise Analysis Unit. The Investment Climate survey in Lesotho was completed in the late fall of 2004. About 110 firms in three sectors of the economy—manufacturing, construction and tourism—were interviewed. The dataset described in this study includes only manufacturing establishments (75 observations).
