International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues ISSN: 2146-4138 available at http: www.econjournals.com International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 2020, 10(4), 80-87. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues | Vol 10 • Issue 4 • 2020 80 Can Financial Assistance Mediate the Training and Human Capital Relationship for Pakistani Women Micro Entrepreneurs? Nain Tara 1 , Noman Arshed 2 *, Osama Aziz 3 , Mahwish Yamin 4 1 The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan, 2 Department of Economics, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, 3 Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy, Ryerson University, Canada, 4 PhD Scholar, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. *Email: Noman.arshed@umt.edu.pk Received: 23 April 2020 Accepted: 25 June 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijef.9833 ABSTRACT Women participation in the economy can help accumulate capital formation and ideation which helps them in becoming a tool for socio-economic uplift for poor people working in the informal sector of the economy. The current research has examined the impact of fnancial assistance programs provided to micro and small women entrepreneurs, on the economic capital formation. Assistance programs include training and fnancial assistance. This research also aimed to investigate the mediating role of fnancial assistance between training assistance and economic capital. The methodology included empirical study, collection of data from 350 women micro-entrepreneurs from Southern Punjab in Pakistan, and analysis is conducted with the help of SPSS. Findings revealed that training assistance program has a signifcant impact on capital formation. While the mediation test confrmed the mediation of fnancial assistance between the training and economic capital. Keywords: Economic Capital, Financial Assistance, Informal Economy, Vocational Training, Women Micro Entrepreneurs JEL Classifcations: G21, I22, I23, L26 1. INTRODUCTION Women everywhere are a potential competitive workforce that can assist in economic progress along with their male counterparts (Ayesha, 2012). In developing country like Pakistan, women participation in economic activities is very low, due to certain barriers i.e., cultural support, lack of fnance, lack of guidance, restriction on mobility, lack of training/skills etc., as observed and evidenced by previous researchers and various reports (Mahmood et al., 2012; Itani et al., 2011; Halkias et al., 2011; ILO, 2003; GEM, 2010). Based on the merits of increased gender equality in economic activity, several development programs sponsored by Government, NGO’s and Foreign Aid agencies are working alongside, to facilitate the women entrepreneurs (Goheer, 2003). In literature, entrepreneurship is considered worldwide to be a progressive concept for the business world. “Entrepreneurship is the creation or management of a for-proft enterprise where the owner, founder, or manager has a stake in the business equity,” as defned by Lashin (2006. p. 27). Entrepreneurship involves a high degree of failure risks. In addition to this, there are several other impediments to the entrance in the entrepreneurship market. Most of the organizations start with a smaller base of economic resources, that is, a unique combination of employees, fnances and technology. Therefore it makes difcult for these organizations to retain and fnd competent employees, raising funds and attract the sustainable share of customer base, for instance, government, domestic as well as an international marketplace, corporations etc (Lashin, 2006). Pakistan poverty alleviation fund (PPAF) also provided a platform for public-private funding and wholesaling of credit to microfinance granting associations and various NGOs (Zulfqar, 2013). This is evident that the role of the government This Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License