The distinction between formal and informal enterprises is meaningful for policy design because the profiles, needs and growth potentials are different. Female owners in the informal sector of developing countries have much less education, start out of necessity, and often earn very little from their business. Programmes to ease registration can impact extensively on women, given that the burden of complying with government regulations weighs more heavily on the low-scale businesses where female owners are prevalent (Ellis et ah, 2007). The SIMPLES programme in Brazil introduced simplified regulations for micro and small firms with the objective of boosting registration rates.