Login
Login
National Data Archive
An Online Microdata Catalog
  • Home
  • Catalog
  • Citations
    Home / Central Data Catalog / GTM_2003_ICS_V01_M_WB / variable [F1]
central

Investment Climate Survey 2003

Guatemala, 2003
Reference ID
GTM_2003_ICS_v01_M_WB
Producer(s)
World Bank
Metadata
DDI/XML JSON
Created on
Apr 25, 2019
Last modified
Apr 25, 2019
Page views
453
  • Study Description
  • Data Description
  • Get Microdata
  • Data Files
  • Belarus2008_idstd
CSV JSON

what is this firm's current legal status? (b1)

Data file: Belarus2008_idstd

Overview

Valid: 273
Invalid: 0
Type: Discrete
Decimal: 0
Range: -
Format:

Questions and instructions

Literal question
What is this firm‘s current legal status?
Categories
Value Category
-9 don't know
1 publicly listed company
2 privately held, limited liability company
3 sole proprietorship
4 partnership
5 limited partnership
6 other
Warning: these figures indicate the number of cases found in the data file. They cannot be interpreted as summary statistics of the population of interest.
Question pretext
1) READ THE FOLLOWING TO THE RESPONDENT BEFORE PROCEEDING. The goal of this survey is to gather information and opinions about the investment climate in this country. Ultimately, the information gathered here will help to develop new policies and programs that enhance employment and economic growth. The information obtained here will be held in the strictest confidentiality. Neither your name nor the name of your business will be used in any document based on this survey.
2) READ OUT THE FOLLOWING INTRODUCTORY SENTENCE ONLY IF A7 = 1 (yes): The first few questions apply to the firm which your establishment is part of.
3) SHOW CARD
Question post text
If answer is 3 then SKIP TO B.2
Interviewer instructions
A firm's legal status is information well known for the target respondent: CEO, General Manager or owner of the firm.
ENUMERATORS DO NOT NEED TO KNOW THE DEFINITION OF EACH TYPE OF LEGAL STATUS.

A firm's legal status is first determined by whether participation on ownership is by shares (first 2 options) or not (options 3 and 4). The fifth option is a combination of the previous ones.

If a firm's shares are publicly traded, it is a shareholding company with shares traded in the stock market. If the shares are not traded or they are traded only privately it is a shareholding company with shares traded privately. A shareholding company with shares traded privately is a firm that is owned by partners or shareholders for whom their claims over the firm are not publicly traded. They may or may not be traded privately. In both of these categories firms have limited liability.

A sole proprietorship is a business owned and operated by one individual natural person. A natural person is a real human being, as opposed to an artificial legal entity such as a corporation or organization that the law treats for some purposes as if it were a person distinct from its members or owner(s).

A firm's legal status defines the extent of the liability which defines the level of responsibility of the owner over the firm's obligations. Under limited liability each owner is only responsible for the proportion of his/her shares.

A partnership allows two or more people to share profits and liabilities, with or without privately held shares. In a partnership, the parties could be individuals, corporations, trusts, other partnerships, or a combination of all of the above. The essential characteristic of this partnership is the unlimited liability of every partner.

Limited partnership is a legal form that includes one or several general partners and one or more limited partners who invest capital into the partnership, but do not take part in the daily operation or management of the business. The limited partners limit their amount of liability to the amount of capital invested in the partnership. The general partners personally shoulder all debts and obligations of the partnership. Business operations are governed, unless otherwise specified in a written agreement, by majority vote of voting partners. Limited liability partnerships are separate legal entities that provide liability protection for all general partners as well as management rights in the business.

Cooperatives and state owned firms should be designated as Other. When other is chosen, the actual form of legal status must be specified in writing by the enumerator on the survey instrument.
National Data Archive

© National Data Archive, All Rights Reserved.