‘Unwilling’ Entrepreneurs

From the PSD blog:

However, another problem in regards to informal firms may be the underlying motivation for starting the business in the first place. There are many informal businesses that are started not because the owner sees a good business opportunity, but because he or she cannot find a satisfactory job (“unwilling” entrepreneurs). A survey of informal firms conducted by Enterprise Surveys shows that 46 percent of informal firms in Ivory Coast, 39 percent in Madagascar and 31 percent in Mauritius were started because the (largest) owner could not find alternative employment opportunities.

Interesting fact on the African informal sector

From the World Bank’s PSD Blog:

Data on informal firms in Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Mauritius show that these firms are larger in terms of total sales and also generate more output per worker. They rely less on physical infrastructure and machines, but more on human capital of the manager. The latter is especially true in smaller cities and among male-owned and those that were started because the owner could not find a satisfactory job.

The world without the bottom 5%

This is how the world would look if the bottom 5 percent of global GDP contributors were removed. This would constitute the removal of nearly 3 billion people, primarily form Africa and South Asia.

The countries erased include:

Zimbabwe, Burundi, DR Congo, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Malawi, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Afghanistan, Togo, Guinea, Uganda, Madagascar, the Central African Republic, Nepal, Myanmar (Burma), Rwanda, Mozambique, East Timor, the Gambia, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Lesotho, Ghana, Haiti, Tajikistan, the Comoros, Cambodia, Laos, Benin, Kenya, Chad, the Solomon Islands, Kyrgyzstan, India, Nicaragua, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Mauritania, Pakistan, Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Ivory Coast, Zambia, the Yemen, Cameroon, Djibouti, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Nigeria, Guyana, the Sudan, Bolivia, Moldova, Honduras, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Bhutan, Egypt, Vanuatu, Tonga, Paraguay, Morocco, Syria, Swaziland, Samoa, Guatemala, Georgia, the Congo, Iraq, Armenia, Jordan, Cape Verde, the Maldives, Fiji and Namibia.

This represents 81 countries amounting to 2.9 billion people, or 43 percent of the world population. This, however, represents only 5 percent of world GDP.

HT: Strange Maps