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Institution as looting apparatus: impact of gender equality and institutions on female entrepreneurship

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Abstract

Do all institutions have similar impact on female entrepreneurs? While most papers consider female entrepreneurship to be influenced by a single factor, the novel approach of this paper is to suggest that interaction of national level institutions and attitude toward to female labor freedom influence female entrepreneurship. This paper examines the factors that influence different types of entrepreneurial activity, paying particular attention to gender differences. We find that countries that have large number of female participate in the labor market and have higher level of education experience more entrepreneurial activity than their counterpart. Higher level of entrepreneurship is also evident in countries with lower level of corrupt when female participate in the economic activity.

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Notes

  1. Entrepreneurial activity is also important for firms' performance, survival, and industry evolution (Altindag et al. 2011; Santarelli and Vivarelli 2007; Cefis and Marsili 1995, 2006; Mata et al. 1995).

  2. Lian, Sepehri and Foley (2011) presented how firms’ investment and cash holding decisions are influenced during financial crisis and financial constraints.

  3. Carpenter and Petersen (2002) found that internal financing is a cheaper source for financing than external financing.

  4. See Caliendo and Kritikos (2010) for the impact of government subsidies on self-employment.

  5. Van der Sluis et al. (2005) study found that higher education is negatively related to the nonfarm self-employment.

  6. Maloney (2004) presented the benefit of increasing the formal sector in the economy.

  7. Ligthelm (2011) found that human capital is not only important for the starting entrepreneurs, it is also important for survival of the firm.

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  1. School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana , USA

    Farzana Chowdhury & David Bruce Audretsch

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  1. Farzana Chowdhury
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  2. David Bruce Audretsch
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Correspondence to Farzana Chowdhury.

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We would like to thank the Editors for the opportunity and reviewers for the comments and the participants at the Association of Global Management Studies Annual Conference 2013.

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Chowdhury, F., Audretsch, D.B. Institution as looting apparatus: impact of gender equality and institutions on female entrepreneurship. Eurasian Bus Rev 4, 207–225 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40821-014-0008-7

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