Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Labor Productivity In The Informal Sector: Necessity Vs. Opportunity Firms, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Differences between opportunity and necessity firms within the informal sector have long been debated. This paper revisits this debate using a new dataset of informal firms in three African countries. Focusing on average productivity of labor, a measure of firm efficiency, we find that it is much higher for opportunity compared with necessity firms. However, this difference between necessity and opportunity firms holds only within the sample of manufacturing firms. For firms in the service sector, there is no such difference.

[Data and Stata do files included]

Obstacles To Registering: Necessity Vs. Opportunity Entrepreneurs, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Using a new dataset on informal or unregistered firms in three African countries, this paper identifies the type of firms or entrepreneurs that experience greater obstacles to registering. We find important differences between necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs. Averaged over six different obstacles, the severity of obstacles to registering is much higher for necessity compared with opportunity entrepreneurs. This finding appears to be driven by important obstacles including taxes that registered businesses have to pay, registration fees and information required to complete registration procedures. We argue that our results have important policy implications.

[Data and Stata do files included]

Commercialization Of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology In North America: Pathways To Success In Northeast Ohio, E. Brandon Henneman, Et Al.

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The feasibility of hydrogen as a source of energy has been researched in one capacity or another for over a century. The first usage of the term ‘hydrogen economy’ is attributed to 11John Bockris in 1970. At the time, Dr. Bockris was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. During a discussion at the General Motors technical center in Michigan he used this term to describe his vision of United States cities being supplied with energy derived from the sun. Typical of a disruptive technology, many years of laboratory testing have created a hydrogen fuel cell product that is ready …

New Establishment Dynamics: Business Formation And Survival Trends In Ohio, Afia Yamoah, Ziona Austrian, Joel A. Elvery

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Ohio New Establishments Dynamics data (O-NED) is a new data set, developed by the College and Center. O-NED tracks employment and number of establishments for establishments that first started employing people between the 2nd quarter of 1997 and the 1st quarter of 2008. The report “New Establishment Dynamics: Business Formation and Survival Trends in Ohio” summarizes how trends in employment growth and establishment survivorship differ across sectors of the economy and various regions of Ohio. This new data set allows us to analyze the number of establishments born in a specific year called “birth cohort” and document their survival …

Northeast Ohio Entrepreneurship Confidence Survey: Fourth-Year Findings, David O. Kasdan

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The continued objective of the entrepreneurship Confidence Survey is to assess the entrepreneurial climate and entrepreneurs’ confidence in their ability to start and sustain a business in Northeast Ohio. This is the fourth year that the survey has been conducted and the intention is to continue conducting the survey annually for the next several years to identify trends that might emerge. The survey has been constructed to measure respondents’ perceptions regarding several issues, including access to capital, workforce supply, information provided by educational institutions and business support organizations, networking opportunities, government responsiveness, attitudes toward entrepreneurs, adequacy of infrastructure, quality of …

Necessity Vs. Opportunity Entrepreneurs In The Informal Sector (Short Note), Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Some informal businesses are started to take advantage of business opportunities (opportunity firms) while others are started because the owner cannot find a satisfactory job (necessity firms). Comparing opportunity vs. necessity informal firms, this note finds that opportunity firms are more efficient and larger. They are also more likely to use external finance, and suffer less from infrastructure bottlenecks such as power outages. The key point in all these differences is that they apply to the manufacturing sector alone. With the exception of having more educated managers and more businesses located outside than inside household premises, opportunity firms in the …

The Civic Innovation Lab: Economic Impact, Ziona Austrian Ph.D.

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The services provided to entrepreneurs through funding and mentoring between 2004 and 2008 by the Civic Innovation Lab resulted in the following economic impacts for 2008: output impact of $9.4 million; employment impact of 128 jobs; income (household earnings) impact of $4.1 million; and a tax impact of 1.2 million ($454,000 in state and local and $734,000 in federal).

Regional Dashboard Of Economic Indicators 2009: Comparative Performance Of Leading, Midwest, And Northeast Ohio Metropolitan Areas, Ziona Austrian, Afia Yamoah, Candice Clouse

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The objective of this study is to continue monitoring the economic performance of Northeast Ohio’s (NEO) metropolitan areas over time and in comparison to other metropolitan areas across the United States, particularly leading metropolitan areas and other large metro areas located in the Midwest. The study monitors economic conditions prior to the current recession. This fourth study of dashboard indicators describes the findings using the framework that was developed in previous studies. It uses the same four measures of economic growth and nine dashboard indicators and their underlying variables for 136 metropolitan areas with population between 300,000 and 3.5 million. …

Impact Of Air Quality Regulations On Entrepreneurial Activity, Scott E. Lowe, Samia Islam

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of NAAQS non-attainment status on the entrepreneurial activity in a metropolitan statistical area (MSA). Most of the existing research on the relationship between non-attainment and the financial robustness of areas focuses on the big polluters (e.g., plastics, organic chemicals, steel smelting and refining, etc.), and examines how many of the big polluters failed or relocated, measured by the change in the number of plants/businesses when an area moved from attainment to non-attainment. Our paper will use a 306 MSA panel data set over the 1989-2003 timeframe, to address the question …

Jumpstart Inc.: Economic Impact On And Contribution To Northeast Ohio, 2008, Ziona Austrian, Afia Yamoah

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report was prepared for JumpStart, Inc. by the Center for Economic Development at Cleveland State University. The report summarizes the economic impact in 2008 resulting from JumpStart investment in start-up companies in Northeast Ohio and its services to assist other entrepreneurs through JumpStart Ventures, JumpStart TechLift Advisors, JumpStart Inclusion Advisors, and IdeaCrossing.