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The Missing Entrepreneurs 2021

Policies for Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment

The Missing Entrepreneurs 2021 is the sixth edition in a series of biennial reports that examine how public policies at national, regional and local levels can support job creation, economic growth and social inclusion by overcoming obstacles to business start-ups and self-employment by people from disadvantaged or under-represented groups in entrepreneurship. It shows that there are substantial untapped opportunities for entrepreneurship in populations such as women, youth, the unemployed, and immigrants and highlights the need for more differentiated government entrepreneurship policies that respond to the specific barriers they face. The report includes an assessment of the impact of COVID-19 across these populations of entrepreneurs and the effectiveness of the policy response. It also contains thematic policy chapters on microfinance and leveraging the potential of immigrant entrepreneurs. These chapters present the range of current policy actions in EU and OECD countries and make recommendations for future policy directions. Finally, the report contains country profiles for each of the 27 EU Member States that identify for each county the major recent trends in entrepreneurship by women, youth, seniors and immigrants, the key policy issues and the recent policy actions.

Published on November 29, 2021Also available in: French, German

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface by the OECD
Preface by the European Commission
Foreword
Reader’s guide
Executive summary
Recent trends and policy priorities in inclusive entrepreneurship
Inclusive entrepreneurship indicators: Activity rates and barriers5 chapters available
Women’s self-employment and entrepreneurship activities
Immigrants’ self-employment and entrepreneurship activities
Youth self-employment and entrepreneurship activities
Seniors’ self-employment and entrepreneurship activities
Self-employment and entrepreneurship by the unemployed
Policies for inclusive entrepreneurship2 chapters available
Designing effective microfinance schemes for inclusive entrepreneurship
Leveraging immigrant entrepreneurship for job creation and growth
Country profiles: Key inclusive entrepreneurship trends, issues and recent policy actions28 chapters available
Reader’s guide for the country profiles
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovak Republic
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
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Key facts

35 million missing entrepreneurs

Men aged 30-49 face the fewest barriers in business creation. If other demographic groups participated at the same rate, there would be 35 million more entrepreneurs across OECD countries. Women make up 75% of these “missing” entrepreneurs, highlighting the importance of crafting inclusive entrepreneurship policies.

Gap between youth ambition and action

Nearly half of university students intend to start a business within 5 years of graduating, yet only 5% of youth aged 18-30 are actively working on a start-up. Lack of finance, skills and tailored support are holding OECD economies back from innovation, growth and jobs.

EUR 14 billion gap

Microfinance can play a critical role in supporting entrepreneurs with difficulty accessing traditional financial markets, notably women, youth and immigrants. Governments should increase funding to start-ups, particularly microfinance where there is unmet demand in the EU of EUR 14 billion per year.