Abstract
This chapter looks at the recent development of early-stage entrepreneurship in the MENA region with an emphasis on the evolution of women’s early stage entrepreneurship, and in particular whether an increase in female participation in enterprise could be driving an increase in entrepreneurship for the region as a whole. Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Adult Population Surveys in MENA countries since 2009, conducted as part of an international collaborative research project, is used to describe the recent development of entrepreneurship in the region, and to test the association between changing relative participation by gender and the overall level of early stage entrepreneurship. Since 2012 the ratio of male to female entrepreneurship in the MENA region overall has declined while the level of overall entrepreneurship has increased, although with substantial variation by MENA country.
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Notes
- 1.
In this paper MENA is defined as the following 19 Middle Eastern or North African countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
- 2.
Z = (p1 − p2)\( /\left(\sqrt{p\left(1-p\right)\left(\frac{1}{n1}+\frac{1}{n2}\right)}\right) \), where p = (p1 + p2)/2,
Then, given p1 = 8.09%, p2 = 6.80% and assuming n1, n2 = (at least) 1000, Z = 1.099.
At a 5% level of significance, for a one-tailed test the critical value of Z is 1.645.
- 3.
If R = TEAm/TEAf, equal to (m/n1)/(f/n2), where m = number of male early stage entrepreneurs, n1 = number of males in the sample, f = number of female entrepreneurs, n2 = number of females in the sample, then from the delta method, Variance(logR) = 1/m − 1/n1 + 1/f − 1/n2. Taking the square root gives the standard error for R, SE(R). If logR is normally distributed, the 95% confidence interval for logR is: logR ± 1.96 SE(logR). Exponentiating, the 95% confidence interval for R is given by Rexp( ± 1.96SE(logR))—see www.stats.stackexchange.com
- 4.
If any occurrences are equally likely to be positive, (TEA and M/F changing in the same direction), or negative, (changing in opposite directions), then the chance of 18 or more negatives in a sample of 24 can be calculated from the Binomial distribution with n = 24, x = 18 and p = 1/2. See Binomial Tables at www.pindling.org
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Hill, S., Akhrass, E. (2018). Gender and Entrepreneurship: Recent Developments in MENA (Middle East and North Africa). In: Faghih, N., Zali, M. (eds) Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Contributions to Management Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75913-5_10
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