How Presence of Children Influences on Female Entrepreneurship: Evidence the Kyrgyz Republic

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between the presence of children on a mother’s probability to become an entrepreneur. The study explores the influence of the number of children a woman has and the age of the youngest child on the probability to be self-employed in comparison with a woman who does not have children. The paper focuses on the dataset provided by the Life in Kyrgyzstan. The probit model estimates show that a woman with children is less likely to start a business in Kyrgyzstan. Moreover, the study analyses the influence of determinants as age, ethnicity, education, risk-taking, the presence of a partner, household income, savings and loan as well as geographical characteristics on the female entrepreneurship. The research results were used to provide with policy recommendation of women empowerment in the Kyrgyz Republic.