NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, September 8, 2017

In America, millennial entrepreneurship is down. Despite the apparent strength of the startup and technology sector, millennials are projected to be the least entrepreneurial generation: Entrepreneurship rates for people under 30 have fallen by 65 percent since the 1980s.

Plenty of ink has been spilled on the root causes behind this troubling phenomenon, from high student debt to the rising costs of healthcare. Yet there is one part of the world where entrepreneurship is alive and well: emerging markets. In such nations, millennials are both a powerful consumer demographic with well-defined tastes and on the cutting edge of the entrepreneurial revolution. In these areas, millennials help drive economic transformation by opening a wide range of businesses and catering to diverse needs.

So why is millennial entrepreneurship on the rise in developing economies? The answer is a confluence of complex factors, including capital, demographics and innovation environment.