PROFITS FROM SELF-EMPLOYMENT - THE CASE OF COTE-DIVOIRE

In the past, self-employed workers were often viewed as less productive individuals, yet recent research has indicated that the nonagricultural self-employed fill a niche in the economy that large industry cannot. The goods and services they produce may well be a necessary part of the infrastructure within which large-scale industry can flourish. This paper examines the productivity of nonagricultural family enterprises in Côte d'Ivoire. Marginal returns to self-employed labor are somewhat less than the wage rate of equivalent salaried workers. Capital yields extremely high returns in self-employment, possibly above 100% per month. Assuming limited access to credit, the self-employed may do well by establishing enterprises and gaining the large returns to capital that offset the somewhat lower returns to labor. © 1991.