Working papers

Innovative entrepreneurship is typically classified as high growth entrepreneurship, as innovation is, in many cases, behind a venture’s success and represents the key to expansion and job creation. As such, it is considered to be an engine for economic growth and development. This study builds on the result of in-depth interviews conducted over a sample of 72 innovative nascent and early stage entrepreneurs in Jordan and Morocco and, herewith, provides an overview of the main characteristics of innovative startups and young ventures in these two countries. This provides useful insights into entrepreneurial traits, the challenges and potential strengths of startups in the region. The specific focus of the study is to try to understand the skills profile of innovative nascent and young entrepreneurs in the region and to test compelling theories into the origins of skills. It is, in particular, focused on the investment and endowment hypotheses. The results point to the importance of balanced skills and provide support for the endowment hypothesis.

This study analyses the incidence and determinants of over-education amongst workers graduating from Tunisian universities. Over-education refers to a job match in which a worker possesses a level of education in excess of what is required for their job. Using data from the most recent National Survey on Population and Employment of 2013 and a PROBIT model, we investigate the factors underlying over-education. The econometric analysis confirms that both individual and job characteristics play a major role in explaining the over-education of graduates. Our finding shows that a significant proportion of the Tunisian workforce is over educated for their job (19.8%). By gender, the proportion of over-educated men (41.2%) is slightly higher than the proportion of women (40.3%). Further findings indicate that the proportion of over-educated workers is high amongst workers with bachelor degrees in Literature, Social Sciences, Exact Sciences, Economics, Management and Law.

This paper focuses on the study of Tunisia’s integration into the global value chains (GVCs) and the role of the offshore regime and foreign direct investment (FDI) in this process. After the brief illustration of the origin of the GVC concept, this document tackles indicators that give more precise picture of the integration level, as well as the positioning of Tunisia in the GVCs. From our analysis, it appears that the offshore regime and FDI currently constitute an essential element of this economic development process. Foreign affiliates play an important role in the participation of the GVCs of Tunisia. The country shows a high level of participation in GVCs in many industrial activities (textiles, clothing and leather, chemical industry, agri-food industry but more particularly, the sector of mechanical-electrical and electronic industries) and services (business services). In Tunisia, forward linkages are less pronounced than backward linkages with GVCs. This dynamic motion may be expected to continue if Tunisian businesses have denied access to technological development. In addition, restrictive regulations for the offshore regime and the FDI may hinder trade links between foreign affiliates and Tunisian firms.