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Given that skill variety is widely regarded a key component of entrepreneurial human capital, gender differences in entrepreneurship could be rooted in the formation of such skill variety. Analyzing 12-year longitudinal data following 1,321 Finnish adolescents into adulthood, we study whether gender differences in skill variety open up early in the vocational development of entrepreneurs vs. non-entrepreneurs, thereby contributing to the persisting gender gap in entrepreneurship in adulthood. Specifically, structural equation modeling was used to test and compare the mediating effect of early skill variety in adolescence vs. education- and work-related skill variety in early adulthood on the gender gap in entrepreneurial intentions in adulthood. We find that education- and work-related skill variety indeed operate as an obstacle for women entrepreneurship, despite women outperforming men in early skill variety in adolescence. Hence, we identify a critical turning point in early adulthood where women fall behind in their development of entrepreneurial human capital.

Our thesis focuses on crafts and rural trade between 1890 and 1960, a period corresponding to the peak and decline of these lines of businesses. As such, the working life of several families of small entrepreneurs has been studied: the framework of the small family business managed by a couple supported by their children, with or without an employee, allows the relational history of these workers to be made. Thus, this study reveals the decisive role of women at the head of their own activity or alongside their husbands since they reconcile the work of the workshop or boutique, the children’s education and domestic tasks, without which the family business cannot exist. By discovering the daily lives of these women, we deconstruct the image of the wife assisting her husband in his profession while underlining the very real inequalities in gender relations.A total of 8 eight companies and ten sectors of activity were studied thanks to the multi-activity of families from Drôme and Bourbonnais. The fact that they go through the same stages in their careers—learning, settling in, choosing a spouse, developing work strategies, transferring knowledge—allows for a comparison to be made. The two main companies selected are the Bardet family, respectively a restaurant/café/hotel/ball/grocery shop/ironmongery near Moulins, which operated from 1896 to 1975, an the Thivolle family, respectively a joinery/funeral director/haberdashery/millinery 30 km north of Valence, between 1900 and 1968. In addition, there are six other families of Drome artisans and merchants who offer other activities such as hairdressing, mechanics and saddlery. This corpus allows the study of the family division of tasks between spouses, children and ascendants. This thesis is part of a broad line of study concerning not only professional equality but also the challenges of local rural trade. This is an economic and social study on gender relational issues, the life of small businesses and sociability in the village, which implements many research avenues: viability of activities, demographics of the workshops or boutiques that make a living from them, associations of artisans and merchants, combination of activities, multi-activity, flexibility of small businesses, systematic male inheritance, becoming of other children, etc. In addition, the disciplines (sociology, ethnology, geography, economics, history) are intertwined to allow the study of this population by integrating it into an economic and social framework.The results produced by this work show that the first artisan merchants of the families studied disengaged themselves from a previous peasant condition. They reveal certain aspects of the sectors of activity: grocery shops, haberdashery and cafés provide information on the evolution of the consumption habits of rural people in full change through the increase in the number of sedentary sales outlets in the commune, the farmers’ departure from self-sufficiency and the diversification of industrial products offered for sale. They reveal the extreme multi-activity of these families at the beginning of the century before a growing specialization in the organization of their work. They reveal the conditioning of the lives of these workers and their children through their business: their life course being defined by the requirements of work organization, economics, transfer of knowledge, etc. in order to ensure their sustainability. They reflect the strong involvement of artisanal traders in village life, and the role played by their professional activities in building village sociability. Finally, they provide information on the precarious position of women in this sector but also on the importance of their role induced by gender and economic constraints., Notre thèse porte sur l’artisanat et le commerce rural entre 1890 à 1960, période correspondant à l’apogée et au déclin de ces secteurs d’activités. A ce titre la vie de travail de plusieurs familles de petits entrepreneurs a été étudiée : le cadre de la petite entreprise familiale gérée par un couple épaulé par ses enfants avec ou sans employé permet de faire l’histoire relationnelle de ces travailleurs. Ainsi cette étude met au jour le rôle décisif des femmes à la tête de leur propre activité ou aux côtés de leur époux puisqu’elles concilient le travail de l’atelier ou de la boutique, l’éducation des enfants et les tâches domestiques, sans quoi l’entreprise familiale ne peut exister. En découvrant le quotidien de ces femmes, on déconstruit l’image de l’épouse secondant son mari dans son métier tout en rappelant les inégalités bien réelles des relations entre les sexes.Au total 8 huit entreprises et dix secteurs d’activité ont été étudiés grâce à la pluriactivité de familles drômoises et bourbonnaises. Le fait qu’elles traversent les mêmes étapes dans leurs carrières – l’apprentissage, l’installation, le choix du conjoint, le développement de stratégies de travail, la transmission –, rend possible la comparaison entre elles. Les deux principales entreprises retenues sont celles des Bardet correspondant à un restaurant-café-hôtel-bal-épicerie-quincaillerie proche de Moulins en activité de 1896 à 1975 et celles des Thivolle correspondant à une menuiserie-pompes-funèbres-mercerie-chapellerie à 30 km au nord de Valence entre 1900 à 1968. A cela s’ajoute l’histoire de six autres familles d’artisans commerçants drômoises permettant d’aborder d’autres activités telles que la coiffure, la mécanique ou la bourrellerie.Ce corpus permet l’étude de la répartition familiale des tâches entre les époux, les enfants et les ascendants. Cette thèse s’inscrit dans un courant d’étude large concernant non seulement l’égalité professionnelle mais aussi les enjeux du commerce rural de proximité. Il s’agit d’une étude économique et sociale portant sur les problématiques relationnelles de genre, la vie des petites entreprises et la sociabilité au village mettant en œuvre de nombreuses pistes de recherche : viabilité des activités, démographie des ateliers ou boutiques qui en vivent, associations d’artisans-commerçants, combinaison d’activités, pluriactivité, flexibilité de la petite entreprise, transmission héréditaire en ligne masculine, devenir des autres enfants, etc. A cela s’ajoute un croisement des disciplines (sociologie, ethnologie, géographie, économie, histoire) permettant l’étude de cette population en l’intégrant dans un panorama économique et social.Les résultats produits par ces travaux témoignent de la sortie d’une condition paysanne pour les premier artisans-commerçants des familles étudiées. Ils révèlent certains aspects des secteurs d’activité : l’épicerie, la mercerie et les cafés informent sur l’évolution des habitudes de consommation des ruraux en pleine mutation à travers l’augmentation du nombre de points de vente sédentaires dans la commune, la sortie de l’autosubsistance des paysans et la diversification des produits industriels proposés à la vente. Ils révèlent l’extrême pluriactivité de ces familles au début du siècle avant une spécialisation grandissante dans l’organisation de leur travail. Ils mettent au jour le conditionnement de la vie de ces travailleurs et de leurs enfants par leur entreprise : leur parcours de vie étant défini par les exigences d’organisation du travail, économiques, de transmission, etc. afin d’en assurer la pérennité. Ils rendent compte de la forte implication des artisans-commerçants dans la vie des villages et du rôle joué par leurs activités professionnelles dans la construction de la sociabilité villageoise. Enfin, ils informent sur la place précaire des femmes dans ce secteur mais aussi sur l’importance de leur rôle induits par les contraintes de genre et les contraintes économiques.

Female entrepreneurship is low in many developing economies partly because of constraints on women's time and mobility, which are often reinforced by social norms. This paper analyzes a marketing experiment designed to encourage women to adopt a new microcredit product. A brochure with the same content but two different covers was randomly distributed among male and female borrowing groups. One cover featured five businesses run by men, while the other showed identical businesses run by women. Men and women responded to psychological cues. Among men who were not business owners, had lower measured ability and whose wives were less educated, the responses to the female brochure were more negative, as did female business owners with low autonomy within the household. Women with relatively high levels of autonomy had a similar negative response to the male brochure, while there was no effect on female business owners with autonomy. Overall, these results suggest that women's response to psychological cues, such as positive role models, may be affected by their level of autonomy at home, and more intensive interventions may be required for more disadvantaged women.

A range of reasons is cited to explain gender differences in business performance in Africa. Within those, the sector of operations is consistently identified as a major issue. This paper uses a mixed methods approach to assess how women entrepreneurs in Uganda start (and strive) operating firms in male-dominated sectors, and what hinders other women from doing so. The study finds that women who cross over into male-dominated sectors make as much as men, and three times more than women who stay in female-dominated sectors. The paper examines a set of factors to explain the differences in sector choices, and finds that there is a problem of information about opportunities in male-dominated industries. The analysis also concludes that psychosocial factors, particularly the influence of male role models and exposure to the sector from family and friends, are critical in helping women circumvent or overcome the norms that undergird occupational segregation.

This update considers new findings since the initial Stocktaking report, substantiating the contribution of the private sector, and of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular, for new jobs and investment. These findings further illustrate the key role access to finance plays in SMEs abilities and willingness to add jobs including the special circumstances of fast-growing SMEs, or gazelles. The new findings further detail availability and gaps in SME financing, including for specific subsectors such as women-owned firms and agri-enterprises. New trends include progress made in recent years to improve financial markets infrastructure, and expanded lending in countries such as China, which have made progress in this area. The findings also include key private sector innovations pioneered by the SME Finance Challenge winners and other private sector institutions, focusing on key sector opportunities (such as agribusiness and energy), product innovation (such as expanded local currency options), and risk management alternatives. The new findings and trends highlight the potential of collaborative platforms that have emerged from the G-20/GPFI (Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion) process to combine resources to improve SME access to finance, and some of the major outstanding issues and obstacles these platforms might address. The conclusion provides recommendations for priority issues and work areas for G-20/GPFI attention.

Banks in emerging markets are increasingly providing non-financial services to their SME clients, typically consisting of information sharing, training and consultancy. This study, published by IFC in partnership with the Austrian Government, is the first to explore reasons behind this trend, finding that banks' key motivations include attracting and retaining customers, and strengthening portfolio quality. The report consists of an overview followed by case studies of three banks, namely Türk Ekonomi Bankasý (TEB), Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), and ICICI Bank. It is estimated that there are 365 to 445 million formal and informal micro, small, and medium enterprises, with a subset of 25 to 35 million formal SMEs, in the developing world. Of these, 70 percent do not use external financing from financial institutions, although they are in need of it. Approximately 85 percent suffer from credit constraints.

This investment climate analysis reviews the experiences of over 3000 surveyed business owners in 26 states of Nigeria about the aspects of the business climate that affect their businesses. It complements a similar study in 2007 that covered 11 other Nigerian states. The survey asks business owners about both their perceptions and the actual costs of selected constraints. The analysis benchmarks Nigeria against comparator countries, and provides detailed data for each state. Nigerian firms have low productivity, as measured by their output in relation to their labor and capital inputs. Firms in Kenya are about 40 percent more efficient, firms in Russia almost twice as productive, and firms in South Africa almost four times as productive. Nigerian firms that export are about 90 percent more productive than non-exporters. Although labor in Nigeria is inexpensive, it is not inexpensive enough to compensate for this low productivity. The poor performance of Nigerian firms reflects many factors. This study focuses on constraints in the business climate and the serious costs they impose on Nigerian firms. Taken together, the total indirect costs of poor quality infrastructure, crime and security, and corruption amount to over 10 percent of sales for Nigerian firms. This is twice as high as in South Africa, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia. Microenterprises firms with fewer than five workers face similar constraints as larger firm's unreliable power, limited access to finance, corruption, and transportation bottlenecks. But the consequences for their businesses are far more severe. For instance, most microenterprises cannot afford generators, so power outages are more likely to shut down their operation. Lacking collateral, almost no microenterprises have access to formal external financing.

International aid flows are equivalent to almost half of Solomon Islands' economy, making it one of the most aid-dependent countries in the world. Around US$250 million of non-military aid enters the country, but only 15-20 percent of this amount is spent locally through local procurement or staff expenditure. Solomon Islands are currently highly reliant on logging for export receipts, Government revenues, and employment. But existing stocks of natural forest logs are expected to be entirely exhausted by 2014. The Solomon Islands Government approached the World Bank Group to identify alternative sources of revenue, foreign exchange receipts, and employment in the absence of logging. In responding to this request, the World Bank Group has undertaken extensive analytical work examining short and medium-term prospects for economic growth in Solomon Islands, under the sources of growth project. This report contributes to the sources of growth work, and is informed by its findings. A key conclusion arising from sources of growth analysis is that aid is likely to remain a key part of the Solomon Islands economy for the near future. The existence of an international security guarantee, backed by the presence of an international peacekeeping force, is paramount for security, and investment certainty. In the absence of clear or certain alternatives to logging, and in the context of rapid population growth, current levels of service delivery will continue to depend on high levels of aid expenditure.

Most previous studies have found evidence at the aggregate level that female entrepreneurs underperform relative to their male counterparts. This study conducts a comprehensive test of this finding. The test is conducted on a large Swedish sample of 4200 entrepreneurs (405 females) with 1 to 20 employees in all sectors of the economy. Our study confirms the results of several previous studies that female entrepreneurs tend to underperform relative to men when the data is examined at the most aggregate level. At the same time our data reveals sharp structural differences between male and female entrepreneurs. In an extensive multivariate regression with a large number of controls it turns out that female underperformance disappears for three out of four performance variables. The only exception is sales. No gender difference is found for profitability. A more detailed analysis reveals that the evidence of female underperformance is much weaker in larger firms and nonexistent in firms with only one employee. If it is true that female entreprenurs on average have weaker preferences for sales growth, while we consistently find that they do not underperform in terms of profitability, our study provides no support for female underperformance given differences in preferences.