Enabling Women Entrepreneurs: Exploring Factors That Mitigate the Negative Impact of Fertility Rates on Female Entrepreneurship

In the wake of the global financial crisis that resulted in many business closures and given the long-term problem of population aging in advanced countries and poverty in low-income countries, it has become important to investigate whether new business formation by women entrepreneurs is a path to prosperity even when countries experience low fertility rates. Existing country studies suggest that female entrepreneurship can have favorable development outcomes through the channels of employment, innovation and welfare, but this paper undertakes a holistic cross-country analysis on the determinants of female entrepreneurship, exploring the role of fertility rates in affecting female entrepreneurial outcomes. We find that the impact of fertility rate is negative and significant in influencing entrepreneurship. But factors like greater tertiary enrollment of females and higher ratios of female to male labor force participation rates can offset the negative impact of fertility rate and in fact can make the impact positive. Additionally, greater access to informal finance makes female enrollment more effective in mitigating the negative impact of fertility rate.