IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/adbiwp/1346.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Gender, Entrepreneurship and Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of GoFood Merchants in Indonesia

Author

Listed:
  • Elhan-Kayalar, Yesim

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

  • Sawada, Yasuyuki

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

  • van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

Abstract

We examine business performance and crisis mitigation strategies among micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. We utilize a new primary data set based on administrative records, survey data, and follow-up interviews with merchants using the digital application GoFood, an on-demand cooked food delivery service. Three empirical findings emerge: First, the overall employment size of women-owned businesses shrank more than men-owned businesses after the pandemic outbreak; second, women were more likely than men to cut personal expenditures and use government assistance as crisis mitigation strategies; and third, competition increased sharply as new merchants entered the platform, with service areas of both incumbents and entrants shrinking over time. These results have implications for policies on women’s entrepreneurship, the uptake of business development services, and financing programs for MSMEs.

Suggested Citation

  • Elhan-Kayalar, Yesim & Sawada, Yasuyuki & van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana, 2022. "Gender, Entrepreneurship and Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of GoFood Merchants in Indonesia," ADBI Working Papers 1346, Asian Development Bank Institute.
  • Handle: RePEc:ris:adbiwp:1346
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/844366/adbi-wp1346.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Susan Olivia & John Gibson & Rus’an Nasrudin, 2020. "Indonesia in the Time of Covid-19," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 143-174, May.
    2. Della Temenggung & Adhi Saputro & Rullan Rinaldi & Deasy Pane, 2021. "Managing Recovery and Seizing Reform Opportunities," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(1), pages 1-28, January.
    3. Townsend, Robert M, 1994. "Risk and Insurance in Village India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(3), pages 539-591, May.
    4. Fafchamps, Marcel & Lund, Susan, 2003. "Risk-sharing networks in rural Philippines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 261-287, August.
    5. Steven T. Berry & Joel Waldfogel, 1999. "Free Entry and Social Inefficiency in Radio Broadcasting," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 30(3), pages 397-420, Autumn.
    6. Jappelli, Tullio & Pistaferri, Luigi, 2017. "The Economics of Consumption: Theory and Evidence," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199383153.
    7. Robert Sparrow & Teguh Dartanto & Renate Hartwig, 2020. "Indonesia Under the New Normal: Challenges and the Way Ahead," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(3), pages 269-299, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kota Ogasawara, 2023. "Consumption Smoothing in Metropolis: Evidence from Working-class Households in Prewar Tokyo," Papers 2311.14320, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2024.
    2. Mahmud, Mahreen & Riley, Emma, 2021. "Household response to an extreme shock: Evidence on the immediate impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on economic outcomes and well-being in rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    3. Eleanor Jawon Choi & Jaewoo Choi & Hyelim Son, 2019. "The Long-Term Effects of Labor Market Entry in a Recession: Evidence from the Asian Financial Crisis," Upjohn Working Papers 19-312, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    4. Corno, Lucia & Voena, Alessandra, 2023. "Child marriage as informal insurance: Empirical evidence and policy simulations," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    5. Renate Strobl & Conny Wunsch, 2021. "Risky choices and solidarity: disentangling different behavioural channels," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(4), pages 1185-1214, December.
    6. Renaud Bourlès & Yann Bramoullé & Eduardo Perez‐Richet, 2017. "Altruism in Networks," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 675-689, March.
    7. Oo, Alex & Toth, Russell, 2014. "Do community-sanctioned social pressures constrain microenterprise growth? Evidence from a framed field experiment," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 75-95.
    8. Fuchs-Schündeln, Nicola & Bick, Alexander & Lagakos, David & Tsujiyama, Hitoshi, 2019. "Why are Average Hours Worked Lower in Richer Countries?," CEPR Discussion Papers 14180, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Antonio Cabrales & Piero Gottardi & Fernando Vega-Redondo, 2017. "Risk Sharing and Contagion in Networks," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(9), pages 3086-3127.
    10. Sylvain Dessy & Luca Tiberti & Marco Tiberti & David Zoundi, 2024. "Coping with Drought in Village Economies: The Role of Polygyny," Working Papers - Economics wp2024_13.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    11. Diether W. Beuermann & Inder J. Ruprah & Ricardo E. Sierra, 2016. "Do remittances help smooth consumption during health shocks?: Evidence from Jamaica," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 50(3), pages 1-19.
    12. Konstantinos Matakos & Dimitrios Minos & Ari Perdana & Elizabeth Radin, 2022. "“Dragon boating” alone? Community ties and systemic income shocks," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 55-81, January.
    13. LaFave, Daniel & Thomas, Duncan, 2017. "Extended families and child well-being," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 52-65.
    14. Stefan Dercon (QEH), Joachim De Weerdt, Tessa Bold, Alula Pankhurst, "undated". "Membership Based Indigenous Insurance Associationsin Ethiopia and Tanzania," QEH Working Papers qehwps126, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    15. Molina Millán, Teresa, 2015. "Regional Migration, Insurance and Economic Shocks: Evidence from Nicaragua," IZA Discussion Papers 9494, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Sommarat Chantarat & Christopher Barrett, 2012. "Social network capital, economic mobility and poverty traps," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(3), pages 299-342, September.
    17. Ingela Alger & Laura Juarez & Miriam Juarez-Torres & Josepa Miquel-Florensa, 2020. "Do Informal Transfers Induce Lower Efforts? Evidence from Lab-in-the-Field Experiments in Rural Mexico," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(1), pages 107-171.
    18. Bramoullé, Yann & Kranton, Rachel, 2007. "Risk-sharing networks," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 64(3-4), pages 275-294.
    19. Dercon, Stefan & De Weerdt, Joachim & Bold, Tessa & Pankhurst, Alula, 2006. "Group-based funeral insurance in Ethiopia and Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 685-703, April.
    20. Fafchamps, Marcel, 2010. "Vulnerability, risk management and agricultural development," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 5(1), pages 1-18, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    women; e-commerce; COVID-19; digitalization; MSMEs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    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:ris:adbiwp:1346. 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: ADB Institute (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/adbinjp.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.