Spousal support and mindset-oriented business training for women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia

Last registered on July 26, 2023

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Spousal support and mindset-oriented business training for women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011251

Initial registration date

April 12, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

April 13, 2023, 4:45 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

July 26, 2023, 5:46 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Ethiopia

Region

Africa

Primary Investigator

Name

Sreelakshmi Papineni

Affiliation

World Bank

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Adiam Hagos Hailemicheal

PI Affiliation

World Bank

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2021-08-10

End date

2024-12-31

Keywords

Firms & Productivity, Gender

Additional Keywords

Skills, Entrepreneurship, Intrahousehold

JEL code(s)

J16, J24, O12, L26

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Intra-household constraints imposed by inefficient bargaining or household production may contribute to gender gaps in entrepreneurship outcomes. In this study using randomized assignment we test whether the economic returns to a mindset-oriented business skills intervention to female firm owners are higher when incorporating curricula designed to encourage greater spousal support for women. The couples' training component involves modelling effective communication techniques for women entrepreneurs and their male partners with training content focused on financial, network, and time resource allocation within the household. Results from this study will contribute to the evidence base on engaging men to support economic opportunities for women.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Hailemicheal, Adiam Hagos and Sreelakshmi Papineni. 2023. "Spousal support and mindset-oriented business training for women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia." AEA RCT Registry. July 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11251-2.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The intervention targets women entrepreneurs in three cities: Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar, and Hawassa in Ethiopia. The mindset-oriented business training program is a tailor-made entrepreneurship training and coaching program designed for entrepreneurs interested in growing their businesses. The training called ScaleUp! plus a newly-designed couple’s curriculum component are implemented by Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT), a Canada-based social enterprise that operates entrepreneurship programs in Ethiopia. The program participants are offered six training sessions, half of which are provided at their place of preference which can be at their business premises or home. The couples' specific curriculum is designed to address intra-household constraints and encourage greater support from male partners. The couples’ training sessions focus on exploring the value of the women’s business, supportive listening, mapping her business path, creating shared solutions, and listing relevant financial resources. The couples' part of the training is offered within the home or business to both women entrepreneurs and their husbands.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2021-10-04

Intervention End Date

2022-12-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Women's economic outcomes covering enterprise-level outcomes such as sales and profits, as well as intrahousehold bargaining power through a decision-making index, time use on work, care and household chores and intra-household allocation of financial resources.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The study will adopt a randomized control trial (RCT) design to capture the impact of a mindset-oriented entrepreneurship training program as well as its joint impact with male partner participation on business performance. Married women entrepreneurs will be randomly assigned to one of 3 groups:

[1] Control group that includes no services;

[2] Treatment 1 (T1) group receives a package of 6-8 modules delivered through the ScaleUp! program at DOT Business Development Service (BDS) centers and in-home sessions for an individual specific curriculum to women entrepreneurs alone;

[3] Treatment 2 (T2) group receive a package of 6-8 modules delivered through the ScaleUp! program at DOT Business Development Service (BDS) centers and in-home sessions for a couples' specific curriculum to women entrepreneurs plus their male partners.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done on a computer using Stata.

Randomization Unit

987 firms owned by women. Randomization conducted at the firm level and stratified by geographic location.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

N/A

Sample size: planned number of observations

987 female firm owners (married).

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Control=330 firms, T1=328 firms, T2=329 firms

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Minimum detectable effects is 0.2 standard deviations with ratio of SD:Mean = 0.8 with an adjustment for take-up rate of 70% giving a sample size of 329 per treatment arm (based on estimates from the Personal Initiative Togo study). We assumed 80 percent power and 5 percent significance level.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB