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Self-employment and poverty in developing countries: Helping the self-employed earn more for the work they do

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  • Gary S. Fields

    (Cornell University, USA, and IZA, Germany)

Abstract

A key way for the world’s poor—nearly half of humanity—to escape poverty is to earn more for their labor. Most of the world’s poor people are self-employed, but because there are few opportunities in most developing countries for them to earn enough to escape poverty, they are working hard but working poor. Two key policy planks in the fight against global poverty should be: raising the returns to self-employment and creating more opportunities for poor people to move from self-employment into higher paying wage employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Gary S. Fields, 2014. "Self-employment and poverty in developing countries: Helping the self-employed earn more for the work they do," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-60, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:y:2014:n:60
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gindling, T.H. & Newhouse, David, 2014. "Self-Employment in the Developing World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 313-331.
    2. Miriam Bruhn & David McKenzie, 2014. "Entry Regulation and the Formalization of Microenterprises in Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 29(2), pages 186-201.
    3. Cho, Yoonyoung & Honorati, Maddalena, 2014. "Entrepreneurship programs in developing countries: A meta regression analysis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 110-130.
    4. Caroline Skinner, 2008. "The struggle for the streets: processes of exclusion and inclusion of street traders in Durban, South Africa," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 227-242.
    5. Fields, Gary S., 2012. "Working Hard, Working Poor: A Global Journey," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199794645.
    6. World Bank, 2013. "World Development Report 2014 [Informe sobre el desarrollo mundial 2014, Riesgo y oportunidad : la administración del riesgo como instrumento de desarrollo - Panorama general]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 16092.
    7. Kim, Jaehoon & Kim, Sangsin, 2015. "2012년 국회법 개정의 효과 연구 [A Study on the Effect of the 2012 National Assembly Act Amendment]," KDI Research Monographs, Korea Development Institute (KDI), volume 127, number v:2015-03(k):y:2015:p:1-1.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Katharina Trapp, 2015. "Measuring the labour income share of developing countries: Learning from social accounting matrices," WIDER Working Paper Series 041, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Franziska Sohns & Javier Revilla Diez, 2018. "Explaining micro entrepreneurship in rural Vietnam—a multilevel analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 219-237, January.
    3. Burchell, Brendan. & Coutts, Adam P. & Hall, Edward. & Pye, Nick., 2015. "Self-employment programmes for young people : a review of the context, policies and evidence," ILO Working Papers 994898993402676, International Labour Organization.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    self-employment; poverty; labor earnings;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand

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