Essays on Entrepreneurship in Colombia

A large proportion of workers in low and middle-income countries are business owners. A significant share of them lives in vulnerability and poverty in spite of all the efforts made by societies around the world to tackle these issues. Entrepreneurship support policies have established as one of the policy instruments available to governments to enable the poor to absorb the benefits of economic growth. There are still several unanswered questions around the policy process and about the entrepreneurs themselves that need to be answered to better inform governments and policymakers.

This thesis explores several aspects of the microenterprise sector and its contribution to inclusive social development in Colombia. It widens the knowledge about entrepreneurs and the policies designed to support them. It presents an in-depth picture of entrepreneurs in Cartagena, Colombia, and studies the effects of the interaction of different policies on this group. The results inform a broad range of policy issues relevant to development, policymaking, and research communities in Colombia, Latin-America and other low- and middle-income economies.