Portraits of youth entrepreneurs

Informal and subsistence self-employed activities are the dominant form of youth entrepreneurship in developing countries. Yet only a tiny portion of youth entrepreneurs record high performance levels in terms of profits and employment generation. This chapter provides a detailed portrait of youth entrepreneurs in Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Peru and Viet Nam. It shows that young entrepreneurs are numerous and are less educated than young employees. They generally enter entrepreneurship for lack of other choices, and fare worse in terms of working conditions.