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Does Social Pressure Hinder Entrepreneurship in Africa? The Forced Mutual Help Hypothesis

Author

Listed:
  • Philippe Alby
  • Emmanuelle Auriol
  • Pierre Nguimkeu

Abstract

In the absence of a public safety net, wealthy Africans have the social obligation to share their resources with their needy relatives in the form of cash transfers and inefficient family hiring. We develop a model of entrepreneurial choice that accounts for this social redistributive constraint. We derive predictions regarding employment choices, productivity, and profitability of firms run by entrepreneurs of African versus non‐African origin. Everything else equal, local firms are overstaffed and less productive than firms owned by non‐locals, which discourages local entrepreneurship. Using data from the manufacturing sector, we illustrate the theory by structurally estimating the proportion of missing African entrepreneurs. Our estimates, which are suggestive due to the data limitation, vary between 8% and 12.6% of the formal sector workforce. Implications for the role of social protection are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Philippe Alby & Emmanuelle Auriol & Pierre Nguimkeu, 2020. "Does Social Pressure Hinder Entrepreneurship in Africa? The Forced Mutual Help Hypothesis," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(346), pages 299-327, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:87:y:2020:i:346:p:299-327
    DOI: 10.1111/ecca.12330
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhou, Alex & Mahadeshwar, Ruchi, 2024. "The Impact of Intra-Household Income Hiding on Labor Productivity," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1525, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Eliana Carranza & Aletheia Donald & Florian Grosset‐Touba & Supreet Kaur, 2025. "The Social Tax: Redistributive Pressure and Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 93(6), pages 2273-2308, November.
    3. World Bank Group, 2015. "Tanzania Mainland Poverty Assessment," World Bank Publications - Reports 22021, The World Bank Group.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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