| By: |
de Mel, Suresh;
McKenzie, David;
Woodruff, Christopher |
| Abstract: |
The authors conduct a randomized experiment among women in urban Sri Lanka to
measure the impact of the most commonly used business training course in
developing countries, the Start-and-Improve Your Business program. They work
with two representative groups of women: a random sample of women operating
subsistence enterprises and a random sample of women who are out of the labor
force but interested in starting a business. They track the impacts of two
treatments -- training only and training plus a cash grant -- over two years
with four follow-up surveys and find that the short and medium-term impacts
differ. For women already in business, training alone leads to some changes in
business practices but has no impact on business profits, sales or capital
stock. In contrast, the combination of training and a grant leads to large and
significant improvements in business profitability in the first eight months,
but this impact dissipates in the second year. For women interested in
starting enterprises, business training speeds up entry but leads to no
increase in net business ownership by the final survey round. Both
profitability and business practices of the new entrants are increased by
training, suggesting training may be more effective for new owners than for
existing businesses. The study also finds that the two treatments have
selection effects, leading to entrants being less analytically skilled and
poorer. |
| Keywords: |
Primary Education,Competitiveness and Competition Policy,Business in Development,Business Environment,Access&Equity in Basic Education |
| Date: |
2012–07–01 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6145&r=mfd |