This publication analyzes the profile of entrepreneurs and how they create high-growth businesses in 13 countries in Latin America, East Asia and southern Europe. It also offers case studies of entrepreneurship development policies and programs in the Americas and Europe. The comparative...

This paper studies the effect of government-backed partial credit guarantees on firms' performance. These guarantees are automatically granted to firms without enough collateral in order to lift their credit constraints. We put together a panel, covering the period 1997-2007, that combines data...

Government-owned development banks have often been justified by the need to respond to financial market imperfections that hinder the establishment and growth of promising businesses, and as a result, stifle economic development more generally. However, evidence on the effectiveness of these...

The paper uses microeconomic data to characterize entrepreneurs by income group and selected household, individual and business characteristics, finding that entrepreneurship is rare but more frequent in the upper class than the middle or lower classes. Middle-class entrepreneurs are, on...

The Opportunities for the Majority Initiative (OMJ) was originally set up for three years as a time-bound pilot initiative. The OMJ team has worked diligently to test the Base of the Pyramid model and develop the OMJ portfolio, and from that standpoint the initiative has been successful....

This evaluation reviews the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of the IDB's Program with Ecuador for 2007-2011. The period was characterized by an important political and institutional shift in Ecuador, embodied in the new Constitution of September 2008. Working within the framework...

The objectives of the evaluation are to assess Opportunities for the Majority (OMJ)'s relevance vis-à-vis its mandate, its effectiveness in achieving development goals, its efficiency in delivering products, and the sustainability of both projects and the "business model" supported by the...

This background paper assesses the actions of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB, or Bank) related to private sector development (PSD) that were mandated under the Ninth General Capital Increase in Resources (IDB-9). It finds that Management has taken the necessary formal steps to address...

This publication analyzes the profile of entrepreneurs and how they create high-growth businesses in 13 countries in Latin America, East Asia and southern Europe. It also offers case studies of entrepreneurship development policies and programs in the Americas and Europe. The comparative...