This paper reviews the recent literature in economics on small-scale entrepreneurship (“microentrepreneurship”) in low-income countries. Major themes in the literature include the determinants and consequences of joining the formal sector; the impacts of access to credit and other financial services; the impacts of business training; barriers to hiring; and the distinction between self-employment by necessity and self-employment as a calling. The paper devotes special attention to unique issues that arise with female entrepreneurship.
In principle, firms in developing countries benefit from the fact that advanced technologies and products have already been developed in industrialized countries and can simply be adopted, a process often referred to as industrial upgrading. But for many firms, this advantage has remained elusive.
Although global flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) have not recovered since the 2008 financial crisis, flows to developing countries have continued to register a very modest growth. But what is the impact of these FDI inflows on the recipient developing economies?
Many reports have described Chinese engagement in Africa as “neo-imperialism” and “authoritarian capitalism”, exploiting resources and local labour while undermining democracy.
This project investigates the role of access to comparative loan information in consumer borrowing decisions, and how providing easy-to-process comparative information improves decision making.
This project explores the theory that the lack of price competition between vendors, and the subsequent oversupply of vendors, is caused by collusion and under-experimentation.
This project examines the formal and informal institutions for dispute resolution used by microenterprises in Somalia, how access to them affects business outcomes and whether the provision of female-only saving and loan groups can redress gender imbalances in access to dispute resolution.
