Verena Tandrayen-Ragoobur

Women in the informal sector in Mauritius: a survival mode

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the characteristics of women entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector in Mauritius and to investigate the impact of women entrepreneurship on their own livelihoods and that of their families. Design/methodology/approach – Using survey data on 158 women entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector, the authors analyse whether there has been an improvement in the standard of living of women entrepreneurs as a result of their informal entrepreneurial activities. Findings – Findings reveal that the informal sector has provided a self-employment outlet for unemployed and retrenched women in Mauritius. Even if for a majority, their earnings remain low, their informal activity has indeed helped to contribute to their livelihood and household earnings. Research limitations/implications – Research on informal sector businesses is fraught with limitations, given that these firms operate on the fringes of legality and data are thus a major issue. Hence interv...

Gender, education and labour market: evidence from Mauritius

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of women in the small island economy by focussing on the education sector and labour market access. First, we analyse the educational path of women in Mauritius and second we examine the labour market opportunities available to them. We link the two sectors by adopting a gender perspective. Third, we investigate whether the same opportunities are made available to both men and women and whether or not there exist a gender gap in economic participation in the country. Design/methodology/approach – The author used data from the World Bank Development Indicators (2012) for a comparative analysis of the gender situation in Mauritius relative to other African countries. Gender statistics were also made available from the statistical office: statistics, Mauritius. The Global Gender Gap Report (2012) and the SADC Gender Protocol Barometer 2012 were used as secondary data. Findings – The analysis reveals that though girls’ outperform boys at all education...

Access to Financing as a Barrier to Trade: Evidence From Mauritius

Access to credit is essential for the development and growth of firms. For a small open economy like Mauritius, the ability of firms to enter export markets is essential for their growth and development, given that the size of the local market is quite limited. To increase sales and profitability, firms have to export. However, there are several costs that are involved when firms enter an export market. In many cases, finance becomes an essential factor that influences firms’ ability to export. These authors investigate whether the main constraint that firms in Mauritius face is access to finance and try to understand how firms overcome financial barriers. Given the limitations of existing methods to estimate financing constraints directly from firm-level accounting data, the results based on survey data are an important contribution in improving understanding of firms’ financing obstacles to exporting and how they overcome these barriers.

Is gender an impediment to firm performance? Evidence from small firms in Mauritius

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the female entrepreneurship underperformance hypothesis using a sample of small firms. The paper also attempts to explain why gender matters in entrepreneurship. The paper specifically investigates the differences in turnover of female and male entrepreneurs and also examines the reasons behind this differential performance by accounting for the gender factor. Design/methodology/approach This study uses survey data on 256 male and female entrepreneurs from the Island of Mauritius. The survey allows for the examination of the performance differential across male- and female-owned small businesses. The paper uses ordinary least squares and logistic estimation techniques to investigate the underperformance of female entrepreneurs. Sensitivity analyses are also undertaken to ensure robustness of the results. Findings The study finds evidence that gender matters when comparing the performance of male- and female-owned businesses. The results reveal that access to finance is an important hindrance to the performance of these small firms. Furthermore, the study also reveals that ethnicity plays a major role in influencing firm performance. Originality/value This paper is among the few studies, which investigates the female entrepreneurship underperformance hypothesis in a small developing state context and also attempts to explain the reasons why gender matters. The paper is an important empirical contribution to the literature in an African context.

Ex-garment female workers: a new entrepreneurial community in Mauritius

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of the ex-garment workers that have turned to self-employment either in the formal or informal sector in the wake of the termination of the multi-fibre arrangement, which led to job losses. This move has given rise to a new community of entrepreneurs in the Mauritian landscape. Hence, this paper tells a story of women empowerment to disempowerment and finally the struggle for them to get re-empowered. This study also shows that there has been a limit to which self-employment led to empowerment for these women as their incomes are low, and they remain in vulnerable positions. Design/methodology/approach - – The study analyses the transformation of a sample of ex-garment workers into new entrepreneurs. The analysis in this paper rests on survey data collected from 92 ex-garment female workers, who are presently self-employed in either the formal or informal sectors, in different parts of Mauritius. Findings - – The findings reveal that the self-employed women in the sample, who are also ex-garment female workers, are essentially necessity-driven entrepreneurs. Most of them have only basic primary education and seem to have no other choice than to engage either formally or informally in similar activities, given their prior knowledge and experience in the textile and clothing industries. The authors also find evidence of statistically significant differences across age, marital status and household size between those women in the informal sector compared to those engaged in the formal sector. Research limitations/implications - – Resource constraints aside, this study could benefit from a larger sample cutting across many other sub-sectors. So far, the results of this study are only applicable to the specific sample studied. In terms of implications, the study finds that the relevant authorities should come up with targeted policies to help these women and address and alleviate the barriers that they face. Practical implications - – This study provides an insight to help explain why a large group of women have gone into self-employment in Mauritius in the past 10 years. The authors find that self-employment has provided an empowerment outlet for these women so that they can financially contribute to their household income. From the policy-making perspective, this implies that it is important for the government to support the activities of these self-employed women with conducive policies. Originality/value - – The study helps to advance knowledge on self-employed women in a small vulnerable island economy context. Given that the transition from being employed to unemployed and then the move to self-employment happened in a rather short span of time for these women, the contribution of this study is also to put at the forefront the industrial changes and the individual coping strategies.

Gender wage differential in private and public sector employment: A distributional analysis for Mauritius

This paper aims to analyse the magnitude of the gender wage disparity in the public and private sectors in Mauritius across both mean differentials and overall wage distribution. The paper then decomposed the gender wage differential using the Oaxaca and Blinder (1973) decomposition technique.,The study uses cross-sectional data from the Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Budget Survey (CMPHS), from 2006 to 2013. The sample size on average is around 12,000 households surveyed per year.,The results reveal that that gender wage differentials are prevalent in both economic sectors; however, the disparity is more pronounced in the private sector. In addition, the differences in wages are larger at the bottom compared to the top end of the wage distribution, suggesting the presence of sticky floors. Lastly, it was observed that the unexplained wage gap (discrimination) is higher in the private sector than in public sector across the years.,The literature on the gender wage gap in Africa is limited. This paper adds to the existing literature on gender wage differential with an analysis of the gender wage disparity across the public and private sectors in Mauritius.

Glass ceiling and sticky floors: hurdles for Mauritian working women

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the gender wage differential at different points of the wage distribution. It investigates the existence of glass ceilings and sticky floors in the Mauritian labour market. There is no previous empirical work studying gender inequality in the labour market for the small island economy of Mauritius. Design/methodology/approach – To investigate whether wage differentials are higher at the top or bottom ends of the wage distribution, the authors examine the wage disparities across different quantiles of the wage distribution. The gender wage disparities are assessed using quantile regression and decomposition techniques at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th quantiles. Survey data from the Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Survey from 2006 to 2013 is used. Findings – The results reveal that sticky floors are more pronounced than glass ceilings over the years. Further, for the years 2008, 2010 and 2012, it is noted that at the 75th quantiles, the gender wage ...

An empirical analysis of the determinants of expenditure on alcohol by alcohol dependent individuals in Mauritius

Purpose – Without an understanding of the factors that influence the expenditure of alcohol-dependent individuals on alcohol, it is unclear whether policies to control excessive consumption of alcohol can be effective. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the factors that affect the expenditure of alcohol-dependent individuals on alcohol. Design/methodology/approach – The main contribution of this paper is that it relies on a survey consisting exclusively of 300 alcohol-dependent individuals to capture the variables influencing their expenditure on alcohol. The survey was carried out by fieldworkers in the year 2012. The respondents come from varied socio-economic backgrounds and consist of both male and female alcohol-dependent individuals living in various geographical parts of the island of Mauritius. Findings – The results obtained indicate that expenditure on alcohol by alcohol-dependent individuals increases as income increases. Given that the coefficient on the income variable is...

Financial crisis and informal sector women entrepreneurs in Mauritius

This paper examines whether women entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector in the small island economy of Mauritius have been affected by the global financial crisis, an area which is largely under-researched due to data limitations. Survey data of 158 women entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector in Mauritius is used to assess the impact of the financial crisis on their business activities. The principal component analysis is applied and our findings reveal that women entrepreneurs have been affected by the global financial crisis in two ways. The first is that they have been affected through revenue factors, which comprise the following: a fall in demand, a drop in revenue and a decrease in profits. The second way in which women entrepreneurs in the informal sector have been affected is through cost factors associated with a rise in the price of raw materials and a rise in other costs of production.

Demographic Transition and Savings Behavior in Mauritius

The implications of aging population on the savings in Mauritius are studied by using two alternative complementary methodologies. First, the Mauritian specific econometric evidence on the aging-saving transmission channel is analyzed by using time-series data from 1975 to 2011 and applying the VAR approach. Second, a microeconomic analysis is undertaken to exploit the rich household data on exogenous age-specific private saving rates in Mauritius. Our findings reveal that GDP growth and lagged savings impact positively domestic savings. The savings rate is negatively correlated with domestic credit to public sector (measure of financial development) but positively linked with the real rate of interest. Lastly, at the microlevel, while male-headed households tend to save less than female-headed households, income and employment status are also important determinants of savings. Further, marital status and family size play a determining role in influencing savings behavior of the typical Mauritian household.