Opportunity versus Necessity : Understanding the Heterogeneity of Female Micro-Entrepreneurs

Calderon, Gabriela ; Iacovone, Leonardo ; Juarez, Laura

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: OPEN ACCESS;    RESULT;    EMPLOYMENT;    FIRMS;    GLOBAL ECONOMY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7636
RP-ID  :  WPS7636

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Entrepreneurs that voluntarily choose tostart a business because they are able to identify a goodbusiness opportunity and act on it -- opportunityentrepreneurs -- might be different along various dimensionsfrom those who are forced to become entrepreneurs because oflack of other alternatives -- necessity entrepreneurs. Toprovide evidence on these differences, this paper exploits aunique data set covering a wide array of characteristics,including cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills andmanagerial practices, for a large sample of femaleentrepreneurs in Mexico. Descriptive results show that onaverage opportunity entrepreneurs have better performanceand higher skills than necessity entrepreneurs. Adiscriminant analysis reveals that discrimination isdifficult to achieve based on these observables, whichsuggests the existence of unobservables driving both thedecision to become an opportunity entrepreneur andperformance. Thus, an instrumental variables estimation isconducted, using state economic growth in the year thebusiness was set up as an instrument for opportunity, toconfirm that opportunity entrepreneurs have higherperformance and better management practices.