Entrepreneurship and the Business Environment in Africa: An Application to Ethiopia
23 Pages Posted: 23 Aug 2013
Abstract
Since mid-2000s, Ethiopia has been one of the fastest growing countries in the world. However, productive entrepreneurship in high-value added activities has made limited contributions to this growth, in part because of a weak business environment. Moreover, the low-productive firms in the informal sector still account for a large share of employment. Reflecting these facts, this paper presents a model of costly entrepreneurial start-ups in an economy with a large informal sector and rigid business environment where an equilibrium outcome can be a low-skill, low-productivity trap. By fostering productive start-ups and skilled employment, creation of an enabling business environment could help move the Ethiopian economy into high-productivity equilibrium.
Keywords: entrepreneurship, SME start-ups, low productivity trap, multiple equilibria, Africa
JEL Classification: L26, J24, J48, O17
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