PARIS - There are untapped opportunities for entrepreneurship in populations such as women, youth, the unemployed, and immigrants.

We have just released the 2021 edition of the OECD/European Union "Missing Entrepreneurs" report. It examines how public policies can support job creation, economic growth and social inclusion by overcoming obstacles to business start-ups and self-employment by people from under-represented groups.

The new report includes an assessment of the impact of COVID-19 among “missing entrepreneurs” with country profiles for each of the 27 EU Member States.

Gender gaps in entrepreneurship persist

“There are long-standing gender gaps in entrepreneurship. Women in OECD countries are only two-thirds as likely as men to be working on a start-up or new businesses”, says the OECD’s David Halabisky in his latest COGITO article.

Missing entrepreneurs are costing economies ideas, innovation and jobs

Not everyone has an equal opportunity to transform their ideas into a business. There could be an additional 9 million people starting and managing new business in the European Union (EU) – and 35 million across OECD countries – if everyone was as active in business creation as core age men (30-49 years old). This would be 50% more people engaged in early-stage entrepreneurship in the EU and 40% more in OECD countries. About three-quarters of these “missing” entrepreneurs are women, half are over 50 years old and one-in-eight are under 30 years old.

A lack of diversity in entrepreneurship is a missed opportunity to create employment and growth in the wake of COVID-19.

More funding, investment in skills and support for the diverse needs of different entrepreneurs are critical for creating equality of opportunity for those aspiring to run their own business.

“Open for business?” How to create opportunities in entrepreneurship for everyone

Not everyone has an equal opportunity to transform their ideas into a business. There could be an additional 9 million people starting and managing new business in the European Union – and 35 million across OECD countries – if everyone was as active in business creation as core age men (30-49 years old).

David Halabisky, Policy Analyst at the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Regions and Cities speaks with Shayne MacLachlan on how harnessing the untapped potential of “the missing entrepreneurs” can uncover new ideas, create jobs and contribute to economic growth, which are central to plans for a strong COVID-19 recovery.

Untapped talent: Entrepreneurship can help address the youth unemployment challenge

Relatively few young people are creating start-ups or managing businesses: only about 8% of people aged 18-30 in OECD countries were doing so between 2016-20 compared to 45% who want to become entrepreneurs.

Disappearing businesses and the long road to recovery: Catalysing women’s entrepreneurship

What is needed to help women entrepreneurs? Sudha Gooty from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific explores how “missing” women entrepreneurs can be central in the COVID-19 recovery to build back stronger.
the majority of the missing entrepreneurs are women and those over 50 years old

Key messages

- COVID-19 had a strong negative impact on self-employment in terms of business closures, hours worked, income, mental health and well-being. For example, international surveys show that the self-employed were about 1.6 times more likely than employees to become unemployed in 2020. Those from groups that are under-represented in entrepreneurship (e.g. women, immigrants, youth, seniors) had worse outcomes since they tend to operate in sectors and locations that have been hit hardest by COVID-19 and have had the most difficulty accessing resources to manage the crisis. For example, about 27% of women- operated businesses around the world closed between January and May 2020 relative to 20% of men-led businesses. - Governments supported the self-employed during the COVID-19 pandemic with a range of measures including tax and rent deferrals, grants and wage subsidies. Whilst the initial government measures were rolled out with great speed, it became clear throughout 2020 and 2021 that the supports did not reach many of the self-employed. Some could not qualify for support due to the eligibility criteria (e.g. revenue thresholds), and evidence suggests that take- up of support was low among some groups, including women and immigrants.

- Inclusive entrepreneurship policy can play a greater role in a post COVID-19 economy to address the growth in inequalities. These policies aim to ensure that anyone can have an opportunity to start a sustainable business by removing market barriers, addressing information asymmetries and providing tailored support. Recent developments in the European Union include a greater visibility for inclusion issues in entrepreneurship strategies, more sophisticated instruments being used to support women entrepreneurs (e.g. growth-oriented programmes, risk capital), growing experimentation with new financial instruments and fintech (e.g. crowdfunding) and a greater focus on individualised supports such as coaching and mentoring. However, some gaps and areas for improvement remain, including an uneven quality of support, an insufficient focus on business development and growth, too few support offers for immigrants, seniors and people with disabilities, and a continued reliance on financial supports. - Government COVID-19 recovery plans place a greater spotlight on inclusion and diversity so there is an opportunity to make greater use of inclusive entrepreneurship policies. In designing inclusive entrepreneurship policies for the future, governments can: o Make entrepreneurship policy more gender-sensitive by increasing the use of tailored measures and making the policy making process more gender inclusive; o Open up pathways to work for young people through youth entrepreneurship programmes to help avoid long-term scarring effects following the pandemic; o Improve the tailoring of policy measures that support the broad range of immigrant entrepreneurs to better tap into their overall potential to create jobs in the recovery; o Increase the use of repayable financial instruments such as microfinance to support inclusive entrepreneurship and use these instruments to meet other policy objectives by, for example, increasing funds for green and sustainable projects; o Adapt, design and deliver measures at the local level to ensure that they appropriately reflect the context (e.g. sector, market size) and diverse needs of targeted entrepreneurs; o Go further in embracing digitalisation – both by ensuring that inclusive entrepreneurship schemes sufficiently prepare entrepreneurs for opportunities offered by the digital economy and by leveraging digital delivery mechanisms to increase the reach of schemes. This also requires greater attention to digital skills development among the target groups.

To download the full report, visit: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/71b7a9bb-en.pdf?expires=1638298779&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=407DC93A811520BA9067A2FCD3AEB4C7