http://repub.eur.nl/res/concept/jel-D13/ Recent publications classified by JEL Code D13 en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34709/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in developing countries are typically considered to be severely credit constrained. Additionally, high business risks may partly explain why the capital stocks of MSEs remain low. This article analyzes the determinants of the capital stocks of MSEs in poor economies focusing on credit constraints and risk. The analysis is based on a unique, albeit cross-sectional but backward‐looking, micro data set on MSEs covering the economic capitals of seven West‐African countries. The main result is that capital market imperfections indeed seem to explain an important part of the variation in capital stocks in the early lifetime of MSEs. Furthermore, the analyses show that risk plays a key role in capital accumulation. Risk-averse individuals seem to adjust their initially low capital stocks upwards when enterprises grow older. MSEs in risky activities owned by wealthy individuals even seem to over-invest when they start their business and subsequently adjust capital stocks downwards. As other firms simultaneously suffer from capital shortages, such behavior may imply large inefficiencies. Lange, S. Lay, J. Grimm, M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38423/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z We investigate the returns to capital and capital accumulation using panel data of Peruvian micro enterprises (MEs). Marginal returns to capital are found to be very high at low levels of capital, but rapidly decreasing at higher levels. The dynamic analyses of capital accumulation in MEs suggest that credit constraints explain a major part of the variation in firm growth. We find a very large positive effect of household non-business wealth on capital stocks of MEs. We also show a sizable effect of risk on accumulation and pronounced interactions between wealth and risk. The presented evidence is consistent with poorly endowed entrepreneurs who operate in imperfect capital markets and a very risky environment. Grimm, M. Göbel, K. Lay, J. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34781/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract – Previous research has shown that in many low and middle income countries micro and small entrepreneurs achieve relative high marginal returns to capital but show only very low reinvestment rates. Existing research is rather inconclusive about the possible causes. We explore whether forced solidarity, i.e. abusive demands by the family and kin hinder entrepreneurs to save and to invest. We start from a relatively simple theoretical model in which households consume and pursue different income generating activities, mainly the production of goods and services and the engagement in dependent wage work outside the household. Value added of the household business is subject to a solidarity tax imposed by the household’s wider family and kin-group. In this model a higher solidarity tax leads to a reallocation of productive resources away from household production to other income generating activities and leisure. We use an original data set of West-African migrant entrepreneurs to see whether the empirical observation is consistent with the predictions of the model. We find some evidence that family and kinship structures within the city enhance labour effort and the use of capital. However, closeness to the area of origin seem to have adverse effects on both. Grimm, M. Gubert, F. None Koriko, O. Lay, J. Nordman, C.J. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/8170/ 2006-12-01T00:00:00Z The emergence of the housewife in the Netherlands over the period 1812-1922 was strongly influenced by the social norm that women should withdraw from the labour market on the eve of marriage. Adherence to this norm is most clearly reflected in the emergence of the housewife among the lower classes, especially at the close of the nineteenth century among wives of farmers. Women in urban municipalities, however, set the norm far earlier and differences across social classes were significantly larger in towns than in rural areas. Paradoxically, the rise of the housewife did not change work pressures for lower–class women. This paradox is resolved by noting that they substituted registered work for unregistered work, e.g., in house industries, working in the family firm or farm. Poppel, F.W.A. van Dalen, H.P. van Walhout, E. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/6591/ 2005-03-14T00:00:00Z What determines remittances – altruism or enlightened self-interest - and do remittances trigger additional migration? These two questions are examined empirically in Egypt, Turkey and Morocco for households with family members living abroad. Results show, first, that one cannot clearly pinpoint altruistic or motives of self-interest since each country tells a different story and within a country both motives can be defended as driving forces behind remittance behaviour. A general conclusion based on a multi-country study is that the family ties and the net earnings potential of emigrants have stronger effects on receipt of remittances than net earnings potential of households in the country of origin. Second, the receipt of remittances has a positive effect on emigration intentions of household members living in the country of origin. Therefore, receipt of remittances may contribute to new flows of migration, in particular in the case of Morocco. Dalen, H.P. van Groenewold, G. Fokkema, T.