IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/adb/adbwps/2136.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Working Paper 204 - Skills and Youth Entrepreneurship in Africa: Analysis with Evidence from Swaziland

Author

Abstract

The shortages of entrepreneurial skillshave lowered search effectiveness of potential young entrepreneurs and the rate of youth start-ups. Our paper contributes to closing a gap in the entrepreneurship and development literature with a model of costly firm creation and skill differences between young and adult entrepreneurs. The model shows that for young entrepreneurs facing high cost of searching for business opportunities, support for training is more effective in stimulating productive start-ups than subsidies. Further, the case for interventions targeted at youth rises in societies with high cost of youth unemployment. We test the role of skills and training for productive youth entrepreneurship on data from a recent survey of entrepreneurs in Swaziland.

Suggested Citation

  • Zuzana Brixiova & Mthuli Ncube, 2014. "Working Paper 204 - Skills and Youth Entrepreneurship in Africa: Analysis with Evidence from Swaziland," Working Paper Series 2136, African Development Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:adb:adbwps:2136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/Working_Paper_204_-_Skills_and_Youth_Entrepreneurship_in_Africa-_Analysis_with_Evidence_from_Swaziland.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philippe Aghion & Thibault Fally & Stefano Scarpetta, 2007. "Credit constraints as a barrier to the entry and post-entry growth of firms [‘Dualism and macroeconomic volatility’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 22(52), pages 732-779.
    2. J. Paul Elhorst, 2003. "The Mystery of Regional Unemployment Differentials: Theoretical and Empirical Explanations," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(5), pages 709-748, December.
    3. McPherson, Michael A., 1996. "Growth of micro and small enterprises in southern Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 253-277, March.
    4. Gindling, T.H. & Newhouse, David, 2014. "Self-Employment in the Developing World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 313-331.
    5. Cho, Yoonyoung & Honorati, Maddalena, 2014. "Entrepreneurship programs in developing countries: A meta regression analysis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 110-130.
    6. Evans, David S & Leighton, Linda S, 1989. "Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 519-535, June.
    7. Baumol, William J., 1996. "Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive, and destructive," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 3-22, January.
    8. Wenli Li, 1998. "Government loan, guarantee, and grant programs: an evaluation," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Fall, pages 25-52.
    9. Wim Naudé, 2008. "Entrepreneurship in Economic Development," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-20, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Leff, Nathaniel H, 1979. "Entrepreneurship and Economic Development: The Problem Revisited," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 46-64, March.
    11. Simeon Djankov & Edward Miguel & Yingyi Qian & Gérard Roland & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2005. "Who are Russia's Entrepreneurs?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 587-597, 04/05.
    12. International Finance Corporation & World Bank, 2013. "Doing Business 2013 : Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises [Regulaciones inteligentes para las pequeñas y medianas empresas : resumen ejecutivo (Vol. 2)]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11857.
    13. Mano, Yukichi & Iddrisu, Alhassan & Yoshino, Yutaka & Sonobe, Tetsushi, 2012. "How Can Micro and Small Enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa Become More Productive? The Impacts of Experimental Basic Managerial Training," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 458-468.
    14. Schoof, Ulrich., 2006. "Stimulating youth entrepreneurship : barriers and incentives to enterprise start-ups by young people," ILO Working Papers 993881573402676, International Labour Organization.
    15. World Bank & International Finance Corporation, "undated". "Doing Business in Italy 2013 : Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises," World Bank Publications - Reports 13331, The World Bank Group.
    16. O'Higgins, Niall, 2001. "Youth unemployment and employment policy: a global perspective," MPRA Paper 23698, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. David McKenzie & Christopher Woodruff, 2014. "What Are We Learning from Business Training and Entrepreneurship Evaluations around the Developing World?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 29(1), pages 48-82.
    18. Alan Gelb & Taye Mengistae & Vijaya Ramachandran & Manju Kedia Shah, 2009. "To Formalize or Not to Formalize? Comparisons of Microenterprise Data from Southern and East Africa," Working Papers 175, Center for Global Development.
    19. Naudé, Wim, 2010. "Promoting Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: Policy Challenges," WIDER Working Papers UNU-WIDER Working Paper P, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Nonso Obikili, 2015. "The Impact of Political Competition on Economic Growth: Evidence from Municipalities in South Africa," Working Papers 30, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    21. Klinger, Bailey & Schündeln, Matthias, 2011. "Can Entrepreneurial Activity be Taught? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Central America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1592-1610, September.
    22. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1982. "Selection and the Evolution of Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(3), pages 649-670, May.
    23. David Card & Pablo Ibarrarán & Ferdinando Regalia & David Rosas-Shady & Yuri Soares, 2011. "The Labor Market Impacts of Youth Training in the Dominican Republic," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(2), pages 267-300.
    24. World Bank & International Finance Corporation, "undated". "Doing Business in Italy 2013 : Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises," World Bank Publications - Reports 13332, The World Bank Group.
    25. World Bank & International Finance Corporation, "undated". "Doing Business in the East African Community 2013 : Smarter Regulation for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises," World Bank Publications - Reports 16246, The World Bank Group.
    26. Brixiova, Zuzana & Li, Wenli & Yousef, Tarik, 2009. "Skill shortages and labor market outcomes in Central Europe," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 45-59, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. MAGADLELA, Dumisani, 2016. "Can You Teach a Lion to Roar? Selected African Skills Development and Capacity Building Perspectives: Breaking Down Old Paradigms and Creating New Opportunities," IIR Working Paper 16-03, Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brixiová, Zuzana & Ncube, Mthuli & Bicaba, Zorobabel, 2015. "Skills and Youth Entrepreneurship in Africa: Analysis with Evidence from Swaziland," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 11-26.
    2. Brixiová, Zuzana & Ncube, Mthuli & Bicaba, Zorobabel, 2015. "Skills and Youth Entrepreneurship in Africa: Analysis with Evidence from Swaziland," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 11-26.
    3. Reeg, Caroline, 2015. "Micro and small enterprises as drivers for job creation and decent work," IDOS Discussion Papers 10/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    4. Asongu, Simplice A. & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C. & Orim, Stella-Maris I., 2018. "Mobile phones, institutional quality and entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 183-203.
    5. Premand, Patrick & Brodmann, Stefanie & Almeida, Rita & Grun, Rebekka & Barouni, Mahdi, 2016. "Entrepreneurship Education and Entry into Self-Employment Among University Graduates," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 311-327.
    6. Egger, Peter H. & Erhardt, Katharina & Keuschnigg, Christian, 2020. "Heterogeneous tax sensitivity of firm-level investments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 512-538.
    7. Marco Vivarelli, 2013. "Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(6), pages 1453-1495, December.
    8. Campos,Francisco Moraes Leitao & Goldstein,Markus P. & Mckenzie,David J. & Campos,Francisco Moraes Leitao & Goldstein,Markus P. & Mckenzie,David J., 2015. "Short-term impacts of formalization assistance and a bank information session on business registration and access to finance in Malawi," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7183, The World Bank.
    9. Calza, Elisa & Goedhuys, Micheline, 2016. "Entrepreneurial heterogeneity and the design of entrepreneurship policies for economic growth and inclusive development," MERIT Working Papers 2016-043, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    10. Wu Juan & Li Yaokuang, 2020. "An Exploratory Cross-Country Analysis of Female Entrepreneurial Activity: The Roles of Gendered Institutions," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 10(3), pages 1-20, July.
    11. Florence Kondylis & Mattea Stein, 2023. "The Speed of Justice," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(3), pages 596-613, May.
    12. Filipe, Sara Ferreira & Grammatikos, Theoharry & Michala, Dimitra, 2016. "Forecasting distress in European SME portfolios," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 112-135.
    13. Nora Aboushady & Chahir Zaki, 2019. "Investment climate and Trade Margins in Egypt: Which Factors Do Matter?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(4), pages 2275-2301.
    14. Siow Yue Chia, 2014. "The ASEAN Economic Community: progress, challenges, and prospects," Chapters, in: Richard Baldwin & Masahiro Kawai & Ganeshan Wignaraja (ed.), A World Trade Organization for the 21st Century, chapter 10, pages 269-315, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Nadia Simoes & Nuno Crespo & Sandrina B. Moreira, 2016. "Individual Determinants Of Self-Employment Entry: What Do We Really Know?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 783-806, September.
    16. Cho, Yoonyoung & Honorati, Maddalena, 2014. "Entrepreneurship programs in developing countries: A meta regression analysis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 110-130.
    17. Nora Aboushady & Chahir Zaki, 2016. "Investment Climate and Firms’ Exports in Egypt: When Politics Matter," Working Papers 1071, Economic Research Forum, revised 12 2016.
    18. Charis Vlados & Dimos Chatzinikolaou & Michail Demertzis, 2020. "The Case of the European South on Entrepreneurship Enhancement Policies," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 10(1), pages 45-56.
    19. Zuzana Novotn & Petra nov & Adriana Laputkov, 2016. "Evaluation of the Quality of Governance in African Countries using Aggregate Indicators," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 6(2), pages 682-687.
    20. Suzuki, Aya & Igei, Kengo, 2017. "Can Efficient Provision of Business Development Services Bring Better Results for SMEs?: Evidence from a Networking Project in Thailand," Working Papers 147, JICA Research Institute.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:adb:adbwps:2136. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Adeleke Oluwole Salami (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afdbgci.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.