Economic Development Seminar, David McKenzie, World Bank
Growing Markets through Business Training for Female Entrepreneurs: A Market-Level Randomized Experiment in Kenya
Date & time
Sep 7, 2017,
4:00-6:00 pm EDT
Location
Abstract: A common concern with efforts to directly help some small businesses to grow is that their growth comes at the expense of their unassisted competitors. We test this possibility using a two-stage randomized experiment in Kenya which randomizesbusinesstraining at the market level, and then within markets to selected businesses. Three years after training, the treated businesses are selling more, earn higher profits, and their owners have higher well-being. There is no evidence of negative spillovers on the competing businesses, and the markets as a whole have grown in terms of sales volume.