Abstract:

Female self-employment can be both a way of increasing female labor force participation and diversity in entrepreneurship. While there are many studies explaining the individual characteristics causing differences in women and men choosing self-employment, studies explaining substantial variation of female entrepreneurship rate between countries are relatively few. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the socio-cultural, legal and economic conditions of the countries that can lead female entrepreneurship rates vary by using World Bank data on 112 countries and dynamic panel data model. Results based on the estimation of this model denotes the importance of legal framework in terms of increasing female entrepreneurship rates alongside the determinants previously searched. The countries reaching closer to legal equality between women and men in terms of business opportunities have higher share of female entrepreneurs.

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