Youth entrepreneurship in Latin America and the Caribbean

Youth entrepreneurship can be a vehicle for enhancing individuals’ employability and social mobility, while also inducing productive transformation. Whereas attitudes towards entrepreneurship are similar, Latin American young entrepreneurs tend to be less educated and come from more disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds than in OECD economies. With fewer resources, skills and experience, they face higher barriers for business creation in accessing finance, acquiring entrepreneurial skills, integrating business networks, creating new markets and overcoming regulatory barriers. Public policy in these areas has improved entrepreneurship prospects to some extent. Programme evaluations suggest that youth entrepreneurship programmes have been effective for improving labour market outcomes. Strengthening those programme components which are most effective, such as business training, counselling and mentoring, can substantially improve the effectiveness of future programmes.