What do we know about self employment in LICs? Chris Woodruff, University of Warwick
GLM – LIC Conference: Setting the Research Agenda Paris, 30 January 2012
Outline • •
Motivation for focus on SE Open / under‐researched questions related to SE Q1: Who are the self employed, and what determines selection into self employment and wage work? Q2: How efficient is the selection into self employment in LICs? Q3: Is managerial ability a person‐fixed factor, or can it be learned? And if it is learned, can it be taught? Q4: Where, given this dynamic, will creation of wage jobs come from?
Own account and Employers
Source: ILO
Open questions •
Open / under‐researched questions related to SE
Q1: Who are the self employed, and what determines selection into self employment and wage work? Q2: How efficient is the selection into self employment in LICs? Q3: Is managerial ability a person‐fixed factor, or can it be learned? And if it is learned, can it be taught? Q4: Where, given this dynamic, will creation of wage jobs come from?
Employers v. own account v. WW (Sri Lanka)
de Mel et al 2010
Open questions •
Open / under‐researched questions related to SE
Q1: Who are the self employed, and what determines selection into self employment and wage work? Q2: How efficient is the selection into self employment in LICs? Q3: Is managerial ability a person‐fixed factor, or can it be learned? And if it is learned, can it be taught? Q4: Where, given this dynamic, will creation of wage jobs come from?
How efficient is selection into SE in LICs? • Critical question, challenging in any country • Lucas (1978) framework with heterogeneous ability • Efficiency concerns at both the bottom and top of the ability distribution. – At the bottom: Maloney and co‐authors suggests no segmentation, pro‐cyclical movements into SE – in Latin America – At the top: Finance (Townsend et al); lure of government, NGO, MNC jobs; entry regulations • Research agenda: Models of heterogeneous effects of constraints, particularly those that affect the highest ability entrepreneurs • Panel data on career paths
Open questions •
Open / under‐researched questions related to SE
Q1: Who are the self employed, and what determines selection into self employment and wage work? Q2: How efficient is the selection into self employment in LICs? Q3: Is managerial ability a person‐fixed factor, or can it be learned? And if it is learned, can it be taught? Q4: Where, given this dynamic, will creation of wage jobs come from?
Is managerial ability a person‐fixed factor, or can it be learned? • Jovanovic: Model of entrepreneurs learning ability level only after entry • Is experience in larger firms important for large‐scale entrepreneurs? – Mustafa and Klepper (2011): Daewoo managers in Bangladesh – Sutton (2010): Origin of 50 largest firms in Ethiopia
• So training programs work? – Karlan and Valdivia, Drexler et al, Bloom et al
Open questions •
Open / under‐researched questions related to SE
Q1: Who are the self employed, and what determines selection into self employment and wage work? Q2: How efficient is the selection into self employment in LICs? Q3: Is managerial ability a person‐fixed factor, or can it be learned? And if it is learned, can it be taught? Q4: Where, given this dynamic, will creation of wage jobs come from?
Where, given this dynamic, will creation of wage jobs come from? • Young firms, starting small and growing rapidly, in the US (Haltiwanger et al, 2009). Is that true in LICs as well? • Even more than in the US, a very large number of very small firms in LICs. (But are they young?)
Effect of wage incentives on having a paid worker
Final thoughts •Data is a key: There are potential ‘infrastructure’ projects which could be valuable (?) • A different set of projects may gather data in specific contexts, but then there is a need to be able to aggregate what we learn from these projects (theory?)