Returns to Leadership Skills: Evidence from Microfinance Groups

Last registered on November 25, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Returns to Leadership Skills: Evidence from Microfinance Groups
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017246
Initial registration date
November 19, 2025

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
November 25, 2025, 7:42 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)
Region
Latin America

Primary Investigator

Name
Natalia Seimel
Affiliation
Tilburg University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Burak Uras
PI Affiliation
Williams College
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2025-11-11
End date
2026-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Finance & Microfinance, Firms & Productivity
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We study whether leadership skill training can improve business and financial outcomes among microfinance groups in Bolivia. We designed a peer-led training program where experienced group loan leaders mentor other group loan leaders using a structured curriculum. We randomly assign 180 group loan leaders to three treatment arms: leadership training, leadership training with performance incentives, and control. The training leverages peer-to-peer knowledge diffusion within existing microfinance networks. We measure impacts on loan repayment rates, business performance, group cohesion, and leadership effectiveness. The experimental design allows us to identify both the direct effects of skills training and whether performance incentives can improve training effectiveness. Our findings contribute to understanding human capital formation in developing countries and the role of soft skills in economic outcomes.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Seimel, Natalia and Burak Uras. 2025. "Returns to Leadership Skills: Evidence from Microfinance Groups." AEA RCT Registry. November 25. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17246-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
(A) Leadership Training: Group loan leaders receive peer-led leadership training with three components: (1) Half-day training delivered by experienced female mentors using a standardized handbook covering eight leadership skills (leadership styles, presidential responsibilities, payment management, loan monitoring, delegation, member integration, business mentoring, conflict resolution); (2) Informal meeting between mentors and leaders; (3) Four months of bi-weekly WhatsApp reinforcement messages.
(B) Incentives: Leaders receive non-monetary prizes proportional to their group's timely payment rate, delivered at loan cycle completion.
Intervention Start Date
2025-11-11
Intervention End Date
2026-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Group-level: Group loan repayment rates, member retention rates, group member satisfaction, social cohesion. Individual-level: Business revenue and profits, leadership self-efficacy, business practice implementation, individual payment performance, household financial resilience.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Social Cohesion: Index of intra-group conflicts (reverse-coded), mutual trust, willingness to help members, and group participation beyond meetings. Leadership Self-Efficacy: 15-item scale measuring confidence in leadership tasks (4-point scale), averaged across items. Business Practice Implementation: Proportion of taught practices implemented (separate money, record-keeping, profit reinvestment, business plans). Group Member Satisfaction: Average of satisfaction with leader communication, rule fairness, and willingness to continue with leader. Household Financial Resilience: Index of emergency expense coverage, savings adequacy, and income confidence.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We conduct a three-arm randomized controlled trial with 180 joint-liability microfinance groups from four branches in La Paz, El Alto, and Patacamaya, Bolivia. Groups are randomly assigned in equal proportions (1/3 to each arm) to: (1) Leadership training only (60 groups), (2) Leadership training plus performance incentives (60 groups), or (3) Control (60 groups).
Treatment Arms:
• T1 (Leadership Training): Peer-led training on leadership skills, in-person informal meeting, and 4-month WhatsApp mentoring
• T2 (Training + Incentives): Same as T1 plus performance-based non-monetary rewards tied to group repayment rates
• Control: Standard microfinance operations
Randomization: Stratified by loan officer and months to loan maturity using re-randomization to achieve covariate balance on baseline characteristics including leader demographics, group loan amount, loan cycle number, group size, and member characteristics.
Timeline: Training delivered between November 17, 2025 and November 30, 2025, with 6-month follow-up period capturing complete loan cycles. Data collection includes baseline administrative data, post-training surveys, and 6-month follow-up surveys, and high frequency monthly administrative data on loan repayment from the microfinance institution.
Eligibility: Groups with at least six loan payments remaining until cycle completion.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Computer-based stratified randomization conducted using R. Randomization stratified by loan officer and months to loan maturity. Re-randomization procedure implemented to achieve covariate balance on baseline characteristics including leader demographics, group loan amount, loan cycle number, group size, and member demographics.
Randomization Unit
microfinance group loan
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
180 microfinance group loans
Sample size: planned number of observations
1,500
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
60 groups control, 60 groups leadership training, 60 groups leadership training plus incentives
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
TiSEM Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2025-07-15
IRB Approval Number
IRB FUL 2025-004
Analysis Plan