Download This PaperMind(ful of) the Gap: Gender Differences in the Perceived Returns to Entrepreneurship in Sierra Leone
44 Pages Posted: 3 Apr 2023
Date Written: June 28, 2022
Abstract
We conduct a field survey in Sierra Leone to investigate male and female university students’ perceptions of the financial returns to two occupational choices — entrepreneurship and paid employment — and relate them to intentions to start a new business venture. Extending existing economic models for utility maximization, we document a significant, positive relationship between perceptions of the returns to entrepreneurship and intentions to become an entrepreneur. We find that women estimate a larger earnings gap favoring entrepreneurship than do men, and we show this variation mediates the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial intentions. This paper contributes to calls for the contextualization of entrepreneurship research and improves our understanding of entrepreneurial intentions among STEM- and business-trained university students, the population most likely to contribute to technological innovation and economic growth in Africa.
Keywords: entrepreneurship, Africa, survey, entrepreneurial intentions, gender
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