Incentive myopia and corporate dwarfism: a critical analysis of Law No. 32353, Law for the formalization, development, and competitiveness of micro and small enterprises, under the paradigm of economic complexity and structural heterogeneity

Abstract

This article provides a critical analysis of Law N.° 32353, framed within the paradigms of Economic Complexity and Structural Heterogeneity. By integrating the tenets of the London Consensus (2025) and the concept of the Entrepreneurial State, it is argued that the regulation suffers from "incentive myopia."

The study reveals that Peruvian regulations persist in an anachronistic paradigm, prioritizing administrative formalization and bureaucratic simplification over the critical accumulation of productive capabilities (know-how). Three critical axes are identified at the institutional level:

1. Corporate Dwarfism: By deliberately excluding medium-sized enterprises and relying on one-dimensional classification criteria (sales), the law institutionalizes a disincentive to growth and fragments the industrial ecosystem.
2. Productivity Gap and Labor Compliance: The study demonstrates that the Special Labor Regime (RLE) is insufficient, as the low generation of value translates into marginal incomes that make the fulfillment of social obligations unviable, even under flexible schemes.
3. False Institutional Representation: The expansion of the National Council for the Development of MSMEs (CODEMYPE) is criticized as a quantitative change that fails to address the crisis of real representativity among MSME associations, resulting in a "window-dressing" institutionalism.

Finally, the article proposes a Roadmap for Strategic Productivity based on Smart Specialization. It advocates for a transition toward systemic productivity through financing conditioned on scaling, precision industrial extensionism, and a territorialized governance model designed to integrate the national production fabric into global value chains under OECD standards