On gender and spatial gaps in Africa’s informal sector: Evidence from urban Ghana

Abstract We employ unique survey data collected in 2016 in two urban areas in Ghana – Accra and Tema – to examine gender and spatial gaps in sales and innovation. Multivariate decomposition analyses of the data uncover the following results: First, there is an unexplained spatial gap in sales between informal enterprise owners residing in Accra and Tema. Second, there are no gender gaps in sales and innovation. However, there are explained and unexplained gender-gaps in how the previous sales (size) of an informal enterprise affects current sales. We discuss the implications of these findings.