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Women Entrepreneurship Issues and Policies

Frédéric Delmar

Stockholm School of Economics

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Presentation

• Background

• Purpose

• Domains– Women entrepreneurship and economic growth– Statistics on women entrepreneurship

• Possible policy implications

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Background of the study

• Women’s entrepreneurship needs to be studied for two main reasons:– It has been recognized during the last decade as

an important untapped source of economic growth

– The invisibility of women in entrepreneurship both in society in general and in the social sciences

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Purpose

• To investigate the availability of statistics and research on the role of women’s entrepreneurship in the economy;

• To propose further developments to acquire better knowledge about women entrepreneurship.

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Assessing the economic impact

• Women entrepreneurship play an important role:– In Europe 10 million self-employed women provide

employment for 16 million people

– In the United States 6.4 million self-employed women provide employment for 9.2 million people

– In all economies self-employment is an important career alternative for women

– Women entrepreneurship is not only micro businesses

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Lack of reliable information

• Need for more basic information (sex disaggregated, N, employment and sales)– At least cross sectional estimates

• Method biases:– age, – industry, – entry and exit,– legal form

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Future and further changes

• Problems with definitions:– International comparisons– Women entrepreneurship vs. small firms

• Need for longitudinal analyses (the dynamics of e-ship):– Survival, growth, mergers and acquisitions

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Conclusions

• Women entrepreneurship represents an important economic impact

• Some improvements have been made over the last ten years

• Still lack a reliable and detailed picture

• Cross-sectional a first step

• Longitudinal needed in the future