The informal or unregistered sector constitutes a significant
proportion of the economy and employs a majority of nona-
gricultural workers in many developing countries, espe-
cially in Africa. Many facets of the sector, including why
firms remain informal (e.g., Gelb et al. 2009), the role reg-
ulation plays in informality (e.g., Djankov et al. 2002), and
the productivity of the informal sector (e.g., McKenzie and
Woodruff 2008), have been studied in various contexts and
remain hotly debated. This note uses a unique new survey
of the informal sector done in conjunction with the main
Enterprise Surveys
1
in three African countries to examine
the characteristics of informal firms and explore how the
constraints they face differ from businesses in the formal
sector. The informal firms were selected to mirror the sam-
ple of registered microfirms
2
surveyed, so it is possible to
directly compare firms operating in the formal and informal
sectors in Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, and Mauritius.
3
The three sub- Saharan African countries examined in
this note reflect a broad spectrum of business environments.
According to the Doing Business 2009 Report, Mauritius
ranks 7th (out of 181) in the world for starting a formally
registered business, Madagascar ranks 58th, and Côte
d’Ivoire ranks 167th. The approximately 600 formal and in-
formal microfirms that were surveyed represent a variety of
business activities, including food production, garment and
textile manufacturing, other manufacturing, retail and
wholesale trade, and other services. Almost all business ac-
tivities are represented in both the formal and informal sec-
tors, and most activities do not seem to be restricted to
either the formal or informal sectors. The composition of
firms in the survey sample differs from country to country,
but retail and wholesale trade is always the most common.
What Are the Characteristics of Entrepreneurs
in the Formal and Informal Sectors?
Formal sector entrepreneurs were significantly more likely
to say that they were interested in taking advantage of busi-
ness opportunities as the reason they started their busi-
nesses. In contrast, as shown in figure 1, informal sector
entrepreneurs were more likely to cite the lack of alternative
jobs. However, in Côte d’Ivoire, there appear to be more en-
trepreneurs of necessity in both the formal and informal sec-
tors: the proportion of business owners citing business
opportunities is lower, the proportion citing the lack of al-
Formal and Informal Microenterprises
Jessica Leino
INFORMALITY
WORLD BANK GROUP ENTERPRISE NOTE NO. 5 2009
T
his note uses unique data from enterprise surveys in three African countries to examine
the characteristics of informal and formal microenterprises. Entrepreneurs in the infor-
mal sector have different motivations for starting a business from their formal sector
counterparts, with about twice as many informal entrepreneurs citing lack of alternative em-
ployment opportunities as their main motivation. Female entrepreneurs are more likely to op-
erate in the informal sector, with 38 percent of informal businesses and only a quarter of formal
businesses owned by women. Differences in entrepreneur characteristics translate into differ-
ences in business practices, with informal firms less than half as likely to have paid employees
and nearly half as likely to have bank accounts.
ENTERPRISE SURVEYS
ENTERPRISE NOTE SERIES
50855
Public Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure Authorized
ternative employment is higher, and the difference between
the formal and informal sectors is relatively smaller.
Entrepreneurs in the formal sector also have more educa-
tion and experience than entrepreneurs in the informal sector.
While 73 percent of all formal sector entrepreneurs surveyed
have secondary or university- level training, only 54 percent of
informal sector entrepreneurs do. The numbers vary slightly
by country, but the pattern is consistent, and the differences
are statistically significant, even after accounting for differences
in business activities. Formal sector entrepreneurs have 13.2
years of experience on average, while informal entrepreneurs
have two years less experience, though the
difference is not statistically significant.
Female ownership rates are higher in
the informal sector than in the formal sec-
tor in all three countries, although
women entrepreneurs always represent
less than half of the sample. Figure 2
shows that in Mauritius the gap in female
ownership is significantly smaller be-
tween the formal and informal sectors
which, in the context of recent reforms
that have made it much less costly to start
a formal sector business, may provide
suggestive evidence that women are disproportionately im-
pacted by improved access to the formal sector.
The pattern of higher female participation in ownership
in the informal sector holds true for firms in each business
activity category, with the exception of chemical, metals, and
electronics (where the number of firms is relatively small).
Women tend to be concentrated in business activities such
as retail trade and food and garment production. The sub-
stantial differences in the choice of sector and of business
activity between male and female entrepreneurs may suggest
that access to finance or other issues constrain some entre-
preneurs’ ability to enter the formal sector or alter their de-
cisions over which sector to enter, perhaps directing more
women to activities with lower capital requirements.
What Are the Characteristics of Formal and
Informal Businesses?
Differences in the characteristics of formal and informal
firms appear to be correlated with the ease and relative ex-
pense of starting a formal sector business and may change
over time as countries' policies improve. In Mauritius, in-
formal businesses are about five years
older, on average, than formal busi-
nesses, which suggests that new firms
are choosing to enter the formal sector.
In contrast, businesses in Côte d’Ivoire
in both the informal and formal sectors
have roughly the same distribution of
ages, and in Madagascar formal sector
businesses are more than seven years
older than informal businesses. In Mau-
ritius, 75 percent of formal sector busi-
nesses are registered at startup, whereas
in Côte d’Ivoire, where it is much more
difficult to register a business, only 43 percent of formal sec-
tor businesses were registered at the time the business was
created.
Informal firms also tend to start out and stay smaller than
formal firms. In both Madagascar and Mauritius, informal
businesses start with about 1.8 workers versus an average of
2.4 workers in formal businesses. In Côte d’Ivoire, the num-
ber of full- time workers at startup is around 2.4 in both for-
mal and informal businesses. Formal businesses tend to have
more paid employees, while informal businesses have more
2
Figure 1 Informal Entrepreneurs Motivated to
Start Business by Lack of Jobs
Source: Enterprise Surveys.
In the informal sector
entrepreneurs cite the
lack of alternative job
opportunities as the
main reason for starting
their businesses.
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Percent
Côte d’Ivoire Madagascar Mauritius
Started business to take advantage of business opportunity
Formal Informal Informal InformalFormal Formal
Started business because no other jobs available
Figure 2 Female Ownership Rates Higher in
Informal Sector
Source: Enterprise Surveys.
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Percent
C
ôte d’Ivoire
Madagascar
Mauritius
Garment/textiles
Food production
Chemicals/metals/electronics
Retail and wholesale trade
Other services
Other sectors
Percent female ownership informal
Percent female ownership formal
Country Business activity
unpaid workers. In informal businesses, as shown in figure
3, the number of paid workers tends to remain low: 65 per-
cent of informal businesses currently report zero or one paid
worker.
4
Formal sector businesses, in contrast, seem to be
on a growth trajectory, with the current number of paid
workers higher on average than the number of workers at
start- up. Indeed, older formal sector businesses have signif-
icantly more paid employees than younger formal firms.
Employment of family members varies widely across sec-
tors and countries. Informal businesses in Côte d’Ivoire are
more likely to employ family members, with 36 percent of
informal businesses but only 21 percent of formal busi-
nesses employing at least one family member. However, in
Madagascar, 26-27 percent of both informal and formal
businesses employ family members, and in Mauritius 39
percent of informal firms and 44 percent of formal firms em-
ploy family members. Family members were paid employ-
ees approximately 57 percent of the time that they worked
in formal or informal businesses.
Formal businesses in all three countries were more likely to
have permanent locations and to own their premises. Ap-
proximately 96 percent of formal sector businesses in Mauri-
tius and Madagascar have a fixed, permanent location, as do
75 percent of formal businesses in Côte
d’Ivoire. However, only between 47 per-
cent and 63 percent of all informal busi-
nesses have a permanent business
location.
How Do Formal and Informal
Firms Finance Their Businesses?
There are significant overall differences between formal and
informal entrepreneurs’ use of external business finance, es-
pecially of basic financial tools like bank accounts. There
are also significant differences in loan use and other less
common forms of financing for microenterprises. While 70
percent of formally registered microentrepreneurs use a
bank account for their business, only 38 percent of entre-
preneurs in the informal sector do. The percentage of en-
trepreneurs that currently have loans for their businesses
nearly doubles from 7 percent in the informal sector to 13
percent in the formal sector.
The magnitudes of external financing differ substantially
across the three surveyed countries, although the differences
between the formal and informal sectors are reasonably con-
sistent. As shown in figure 4, the use of loans is much more
common in Mauritius (which had the highest Doing Busi-
ness credit ranking of the three countries surveyed in 2009),
though formal sector entrepreneurs are still more than twice
as likely to have a loan as informal entrepreneurs. In Mada-
gascar, the difference between the formal and informal sec-
tors in having a bank account is extremely large. In Côte
d’Ivoire, the country with the lowest Doing Business rank-
ings of those surveyed, use of both bank accounts and loans
is relatively low even in the formal sector.
Why Do Businesses Remain Informal?
The main reason informal firms cite for remaining unregis-
tered varies by country, but the top reasons are the taxes on
registered businesses (46 percent in Mauritius and 31 percent
in Madagascar) and getting information on how to register
(55 percent in Côte d’Ivoire). As shown in figure 5, the fees
to complete the registration process are
another reason frequently cited in all
three countries (24 percent in Mauritius,
27 percent in Madagascar, and 21 percent
in Côte d’Ivoire). Interestingly, both the
time and the cost of registering a business
in Mauritius are very low (Doing Business
2009), so these responses may reflect a
lack of information about registration procedures.
Payments to remain informal are not commonly reported.
In Côte d’Ivoire, nearly 6 percent of informal firms report
that they are required to make informal payments in order to
stay unregistered, whereas only 0.8 percent of firms in Mada-
gascar and no firms in Mauritius report such payments.
3
Formal businesses
tend to have more paid
employees.
Figure 3 Formal Firms More Likely to Have
Paid Workers
Source: Enterprise Surveys.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Percent
Number of paid workers
01234
Formal
Informal
Figure 4 Formal Sector Use of Bank Accounts
and Loans Is Substantially Higher
Source: Enterprise Surveys.
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Percent
Côte d’Ivoire Madagascar Mauritius
Formal Informal Informal InformalFormal Formal
Bank account
Loan
End of Document
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