Search

Copyright of Retos, Revista de Ciencias Administrativas y Económicas is the property of Universidad Politecnica Salesiana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article aims to investigate the factors influencing the closure of informal businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on the differences between businesses led by women and men. The research employed a logistic regression approach and utilized the matching method to evaluate the pandemic’s impact. The study relied on a database created by the Development Policy Analysis Laboratory, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, which encompassed 923 informal businesses operating in diverse sectors in Dakar. The findings demonstrate that businesses managed by women experienced a more severe impact from the pandemic, leading to a higher likelihood of temporary closure. These results underscore the disproportionate effect of the crisis on women entrepreneurs within the informal sector and emphasize the necessity for tailored measures to support this vulnerable population during and after the pandemic. Such measures should address the unique challenges faced by women-led informal businesses and help foster their recovery and long-term sustainability

Purpose: In the process of school-to-work transition, the role of general education and vocational education and training (VET) remains quite central. Based on the human capital theory, we estimate whether investment in VET brings additional returns for workers across the age cohorts. Design/methodology/approach: The focus of our study being the labour market in India, the data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2018–19, conducted by the National Statistical Office, has been used for analysis. We have applied the ordinary least square method with sample selection correction, the quasi-experimental technique of propensity score matching and heteroskedasticity based instrumental variable approach to estimate the returns with respect to no VET, formal VET and informal VET. Findings: Our study shows that workers with formal VET earn higher wages than workers with no VET or informal VET. The study finds that workers with informal VET do not earn higher wages than workers with no VET. Moreover, from the age cohort analysis, we have deduced that wage advantage of workers with formal VET persists across all age cohorts and, in fact, accentuates with an increase in age. Originality/value: We have estimated that VET being complemented with basic general education fetches higher returns in the labour market, especially when provided through formal channels. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, in the case of developing countries where informal VET is widely provided, this is one of the first studies that captures the return to informal VET. Lastly, complementing the existing studies on the developed countries, we have estimated the returns to VET over the life cycle of the workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does informal economic activity respond to increased financial inclusion? Does it become more entrepreneurial? Does access to new financing options change the gender configuration of informal economic activity and, if so, in what ways and what directions? We take advantage of nationwide data collected in 2010/11 and 2015/16 by India's National Sample Survey Office on unorganized (informal) enterprises. This period was one of rapid expansion of banking availability aimed particularly at the unbanked, under-banked, and women. We find strong empirical evidence supporting the crucial role of financial access in promoting entrepreneurship among informal sector firms in India. Our results are robust to alternative specifications and alternative measures of financial constraints using an approach combining propensity score matching and difference-in-differences. However, we do not find conclusive evidence that increased financial inclusion leads to a higher likelihood of women becoming entrepreneurs than men in the informal sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether R&D, exports, and competition affect the adoption of international standard certification in ASEAN. Although prior studies recognized the importance of R&D, exports, and competition in determining a firm's decision to adopt international standards, they often focused on a single determinant of this activity. Hence, this study tries to incorporate three important internal and external factors in a comprehensive study. The current study investigates these questions by analyzing the data from a valid sample of appropriately 4,000 firms in the manufacturing industries in eight countries in ASEAN in 2015-2016. The study utilizes a multilevel mixedeffects logit model for estimation to take into account the hierarchical nature of our data set. The results show that firms with R&D activities tend to adopt more international standard certificates. We also find that exports are highly important, while competition from the informal sector does not show association with firms' innovativeness. These findings remain valid after endogenous and robustness testing using the propensity score matching method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the survey data collected on informal sector MSMEs in Senegal, this study performs logit and propensity score matching (PSM) both to examine the determinants of access to credit, the decline in sales, and the business growth prospect in the 12 months following the COVID‐19 pandemic and to assess the impact of credit on the MSMEs sales decline. We find that being a male manager and aged 46–55 years old reduces the likelihood of a decline in sales, whereas those who are 25–35 years present a high probability of experiencing a decrease in sales due to COVID‐19. Being between 25 and 35 and 36–45 years old with a formalized MSME increases the probability of having access to loans. MSMEs that undertake manufacturing businesses appear more pessimistic about the future. More importantly, PSM findings show that MSMEs with loans have a higher average treatment effect of sales decline than their counterparts. This suggests that the greater the access to credit, the greater the difference in sales decline between MSMEs with credit and their counterpart without. The policy implications underline the importance of extended maturities and direct government financial support—not debt—to help the most affected informal sector MSMEs recover from the COVID‐19 pandemic adverse effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes youth internal migration in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and its impact on entrepreneurship startup in a fresh post‐conflict context. Building on a national representative survey conducted in 2005, a recursive bivariate probit specification is used to jointly estimate the decision models of both migration and entrepreneurship. To evaluate the robustness of results, the propensity score matching method is used to test the concordance of the results after eliminating the redundant impact of unobserved factors. The two main conclusions are that youth migration increases the probability of being an entrepreneur, but in the informal sector. In addition, like secondary and post‐secondary education, the duration of stay after migrating is an important factor to being an entrepreneur in the formal sector. These conclusions are expected to enlighten policy‐makers as to the importance of promoting secondary and post‐secondary education as well as inclusive growth investments that may absorb more youth labor in formal sectors. This is the first exercise in the case of the DRC and since it focuses on youth, the paper makes a unique contribution to the literature related to the link between migration and entrepreneurship in a post‐war context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]