Is Youth Entrepreneurship a Necessity or an Opportunity? A First Exploration of Household and New Enterprise Surveys in Latin America

This paper takes into account the quality of the policies and programs which governments, development agencies and civil society implement to support youth entrepreneurship. The authors list youth entrepreneurs in two groups:

• Entrepreneurs by necessity: these they analyze through household surveys;
• Vocational entrepreneurs: these they analyze using information from the IDB's Dynamic Entrepreneurship Database (IDB-DED).

The authors examine the:

• Social and educational backgrounds of both groups;
• Impact of their entrepreneurship activities and the effect of policies.

The paper presents policy improvements and recommendations for topics concerning education, financing, business environment and institutional strengthening. Finally it concludes that:

• There are several constraints which limit the youth entrepreneurs;
• New objectives need to be introduced into policy making, such as the provision of technical assistance, more specific training, development networks and microfinance.