IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17887.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Organized Is the Informal Sector? The Role of Business Associations in Microenterprises in West Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Joubert, Clement

    (World Bank)

  • Beegle, Kathleen

    (World Bank)

Abstract

Although microenterprises are the most prevalent employer in Africa, boosting their productivity remains a development challenge. Theoretically, microenterprise business associations could foster technology, improve access to inputs, pool risk, ensure coordination, and facilitate credit for businesses. However, basic facts about their scope and roles are missing from the literature. This study establishes descriptive results to shed light on the nature of these networks in West Africa. First, fewer than 10 percent of informal business owners are members, although there is large industry variation. Second, members tend to be older and larger incumbent businesses with male owners, potentially stifling competition and entrenching gender gaps. Third, most associations are more aptly described as providers of excludable, industry-specific services than as vehicles for collective action and advocacy. Fourth, membership helps explain performance differences among observably similar businesses. Members are more productive, profitable, and financially included relative to similar non-members, although such premia only materialize in a few industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Joubert, Clement & Beegle, Kathleen, 2025. "How Organized Is the Informal Sector? The Role of Business Associations in Microenterprises in West Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 17887, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17887
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17887.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    business associations; Africa; microenterprises; productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17887. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.