29

# - 12 <u>3.4.1 Earnings of the self employed</u>

_Over half of the working population is self-employed in Mauritania_ (Section 2.3.). _Earnings from selfemployment vary across living areas_ (Table 18). Mean earnings of the self-employed are higher in urban centers than in rural regions (37,800 MRO compared to 26,800 MRO). Median monthly earnings of all the self-employed, however, stand at 20,000 MRO, very similar to those observed in rural and urban areas. Mean earnings of self-employed people engaged in agriculture or livestock in rural areas amount to 22,700 MRO (median at 15,000 MRO), whereas mean earnings of those engaged in trade or services in urban areas amount to 38,600 MRO (median at 25,000 MRO).<sup>13</sup> Earnings of the self-employed in Nouakchott are approximately 50 percent higher than those of the overall self-employed population.<sup>14</sup>

**Table 18. Self-Employed – Monthly Earnings by Living Area and Gender (in thousands of**

**MRO)**

|||_All_|_R_|_ural_|_U_|_rban_|_M_|_ale_|_F_|_emale_|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||_Mean_|_Median_|_Mean_|_Median_|_Mean_|_Median_|_Mean_|_Median_|_Mean_|_Median_|
|_Monthly_<br>_Earnings _|29.2|20|26.8|20|37.8|21|35.1|21|14.6|10|

Source: EPCV 2004.

_Unsurprisingly, earnings from self-employment are lower among the poor._ Indeed, the poor earn on average 40 percent less than the non poor engaged in self-employment (Table H). The gap is wider in urban areas where earnings of the self-employed non poor amount to nearly the double of that of the poor (in rural areas, the differential is of approximately 40 percent). As evidenced by Table H, earnings of the extremely poor do not differ substantially from those observed for the poor. Investigating this point would require deeper analysis which is beyond the scope of this paper. At least one element could account for this result: extremely poor households exhibit higher dependency ratios than the poor.<sup>15</sup> Hence, extreme poverty could result from the fact that earnings are not sufficient to cover all household members’ needs.<sup>16</sup>

> 12 Earnings reported by the self-employed should be interpreted with caution. It is indeed unclear whether respondents reported their actual earnings or the sales figures of their businesses. Moreover, as the EPCV 2004 does not include information on the number of hours worked, we were unable to adjust these earnings for unpaid family labor. Individual earnings for the self-employed might thus be somewhat overestimated. 13 Results not included here.

> 14 Mean earnings of the self-employed in Nouakchott amount to 51,000 ouguiyas, with a median at 30,000 ouguiyas. 15 Dependency ratios are computed here as the number of household members below 15 or above 64 for each working-age member. The average dependency ratio for the poor is equal to 1.33 compared to 1.43 for the extremely poor. For households with at least one member engaged in self-employment, the average dependency ratios stand at 1.34 for the poor and 1.45 for the extremely poor.

> 16 We also checked whether extremely poor households relied more on unpaid family labor than poor households. But poor households in which at least one member is engaged in self-employment exhibit on average 0.215 unpaid family worker compared to 0.216 for extremely poor households.