小型和非正规家庭企业想要什么？（英）2025

11235 What Do Small and Informal HouseholdEnterprises Want? Nicolas CerkezWendy CunninghamSarika GuptaFelix Lung Social Protection and LaborGlobal DepartmentOctober 2025 A verified reproducibility package for this paper isavailable athttp://reproducibility.worldbank.org,clickherefor direct access. Policy Research Working Paper11235 Abstract A large share of workers in Sub-Saharan Africa earn alivingthrough informal,low productivity householdenterprises.While structural transformation towardformal wage employment is viewed as the long-term pathto improving livelihoods, progress has been slow. In themeantime, small enterprises will remain a key source ofemployment for many years to come, making it importantto better understand how to help such enterprises thrive.This paper uses original survey data from 1,526 poor indi-viduals across Liberia, Niger, and Senegal to examine theaspirations and constraints of urban household enterpriseowners. The results suggest that most surveyed businessowners voluntarily started their businesses, are satisfiedwith their jobs, and aspire to and have plans to expandtheir businesses. Most report that they earn more than they could as wage earners, with wage earners confirming theobservations. However, a combination of family and busi-ness constraints and shocks may hinder their ambitions,ability to act on their goals, and realization of those goals.That said, two-thirds of micro-enterprise owners said theywould accept a wage job if it offered wages on par withtheir current earnings. This suggests that households willcontinue to prefer firm ownership in the short run untilstructural transformation can improve earning potentialof wage employment in the long term. The results sug-gest that household enterprise owners require a dual policyapproach: one that improves current enterprise conditionswhile advancing longer-term structural reforms to expandaccess to quality wage employment. This paper is a product of the Social Protection and Labor Global Department. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bankto provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. PolicyResearch Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://www.worldbank.org/prwp. The authors may be contactedat wcunningham@worldbank.org, sringwala@worldbank.org, flung@worldbank.org and nicolas.cerkez@qeh.ox.ac.uk.Averified reproducibility package for this paper is available athttp://reproducibility.worldbank.org, clickherefor direct access. The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about developmentissues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry thenames of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely thoseof the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank andits affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. Nicolas Cerkez†Wendy CunninghamSarika GuptaFelix Lung Keywords:informal urban labor markets, aspirations, job satisfactionJEL Codes:J46, L26, M20, M50, J28 1Introduction A significant share of people in the developing world work in small, informal enterprises withextremely low productivity and thus low earnings (ILO, 2018). Structural transformation towardlarger, formal firms, and the wage jobs therein, is widely seen as a way to improve job quality andlivelihoods (Bandiera et al., 2022; Gollin and Kaboski, 2023). However, this process takes time. Forinstance, the ILO estimates that the share of wage employment in modern firms in Sub-SaharanAfrica increased by only three percentage points over 25 years (1995-2020).1Due to the slow paceof structural transformation in many economies, informal micro-enterprises will likely be a primarysource of jobs for a long time. Public policies can support the largely informal micro-enterprise sector to be a source of betterjobs and poverty reduction (Banerjee et al., 2015; Hirvonen et al., 2024; Ar´evalo-S´anchez et al.,2024), but the success of such policies will depend first and foremost on the willingness and capacityof potential and existing micro-entrepreneurs to take part in this kind of work.2 There is thinempirical evidence on the preference for micro-entrepreneurship as a viable source of good jobs,especially in slow growing, low-income economies.3 This is what this paper seeks to explore.Byengaging directly with owners of micro and often informal household enterprises in three WestAfrican countries, we seek to understand what these micro-entrepreneurs aspire to and what preventsthem from achieving it, given current market conditions.4 By incorporating individuals’ perspectives, we aim to i