During the ERF 17th Annual Conference Francesca Marchetta from the Robert Schuman Centre (EUI), Centre d’Etude et de Recherches sur le Development International (CERDI) presented a paper on the survival of entrepreneurial activities particularly role of migration activities.Looking at the Egyptian labor market survey (1988-2006), her research pointed out the facts that non-random selection in un-observables is likely to generate “endogeneity” between an entrepreneur migration experience and the chances of survival of the entrepreneurial activity.
Marchetta stressed that these important findings have not been explored prior to her research. She concluded that the migration experience significantly improves the chances of survival of the firm.
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Download the paper “Born to be Alive? Return Migration and the Survival of Entrepreneurial Activities in Egypt”from the ERF website. From her side, Serena Canaan presented a paper titled “The Determinants of Expansion of SMEs under a Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme: The Case of Lebanon”. Serena tried to assess the impact of the Lebanese credit guarantee scheme on its clients. She mentioned the fact that in Lebanon it is difficult to assess the contribution of SMEs to the economy. Serena points out that literature for her paper is “scarce” and that she tried to add to this literature through the paper findings and conclusion. She believes that her paper can “be used for future research” in order to analyze the causes and “try to identify solutions to those disparities”.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6SWyrWXjis]
Download the paper “The Determinants of Expansion of SMEs under a Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme: The Case of Lebanon” from the ERF website