Empowering Women Caregiver Entrepreneurs in Bogotá

The study has three arms, all embedded within existing one-day entrepreneurship bootcamps run by Bogotá's Secretaría Distrital de Desarrollo Económico (SDDE). All participants receive the same entrepreneurship training covering soft skills, business planning, financial management, marketing, and formalization support.

T1 (Training Only): Participants receive the standard SDDE entrepreneurship bootcamp with no additional components.
T2 (Training + Social Norms): Before the training begins, participants take part in a brief group session where they respond to statements about gender roles and caregiving. They report their own views and estimate what they think other women in the room believe. The group's actual responses are then shared with participants.
T3 (Training + Social Norms + Planning): Same as T2, followed by a short individual planning exercise focused on caregiving arrangements at home.

2026-02-28

2026-07-31

DIME Index (Diagnóstico de Madurez Empresarial): A composite measure of overall business development scored on a 0-5 scale, constructed from five dimensions using PCA-derived weights: (i) product/service development, (ii) leadership and planning, (iii) marketing and sales, (iv) finance and accounting, and (v) innovation. Measured at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months post-intervention.

The primary outcome, the DIME Index, is constructed following the methodology developed by Bogotá's Secretaría Distrital de Desarrollo Económico (SDDE). It aggregates five dimensions of business maturity, each measured by multiple survey items scored on an ordinal 1-5 scale:
(i) Product/Service Development: clarity of main offering, degree of production standardization, installed vs. utilized capacity, and age of product/service.
(ii) Leadership and Planning: organization of management team, existence of strategic planning, formality of hiring practices, and workforce size.
(iii) Marketing and Sales: commercial strategy, sales channels, market reach (local/national/international), customer satisfaction tracking, average monthly sales, and physical sales point.
(iv) Finance and Accounting: access to external financing (formal and informal), use of accounting or financial record-keeping systems, and organization of income/expense records.
(v) Innovation: areas of innovation implemented (product, process, marketing, technology), innovation management practices, R&D budget, and adoption of digital technologies.
Within each dimension, variable weights are derived from a Principal Components Analysis (PCA) on baseline data, assigning greater influence to variables that explain more variance in overall business performance. Dimension scores are computed as weighted sums. The five dimension scores are then combined using PCA-derived weights into an overall DIME index score ranging from 0 to 5, corresponding to business life-cycle stages: 0-1 = ideation, 1-2 = nascency, 2-3 = growth, 3-4 = acceleration, 4-5 = consolidation/maturity.

DIME sub-indices: Each of the five dimensions measured separately.
IMIE Index (Índice Multidimensional de Informalidad Empresarial): A composite measure of business formalization (0-1 scale) aggregating five indicators: legal registration, tax compliance, formal financial records, social security contributions, and use of formal banking services. Measured at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months.
Intra-household caregiving arrangements: How caregiving and domestic tasks are shared among household members, including hours spent on caregiving tasks. Measured at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months.
Women's economic independence: Business income, income diversification, and participants' self-assessed confidence in business skills and economic autonomy. Measured at 6 and 12 months.
Gender norm beliefs: First-order beliefs (personal views) and second-order beliefs (perceptions of others' views) about gender roles and caregiving for the T2 and T3. Measured at 6 months, and 12 months.

The IMIE Index (secondary outcome) aggregates five binary/ordinal indicators: (1) legal registration with authorities, (2) tax compliance, (3) formal financial/administrative records, (4) social security contributions for employees, and (5) use of formal banking services. Each component is standardized and combined into a composite score on a 0-1 scale, where higher values indicate greater formalization.

This is a three-arm randomized controlled trial embedded within existing one-day entrepreneurship bootcamps for women caregivers in Bogotá, Colombia, run by the Secretaría Distrital de Desarrollo Económico (SDDE).
Approximately 1,080 women entrepreneurs identified through the DIME (Diagnóstico de Madurez Empresarial) administrative database participate in bootcamps held approximately once a month over a five-month period. Five bootcamps are planned in total, each with around 10 classrooms of 25-40 women. Women who confirm attendance to a given bootcamp are individually randomly assigned to classrooms using stratified randomization based on business maturity stage and demographic characteristics. Classrooms are pre-designated to treatment arms: approximately 5 classrooms per bootcamp are assigned to T1, 2-3 to T2, and 2-3 to T3. All classrooms within the same bootcamp receive the same entrepreneurship training; the difference is whether participants also receive the social norms module (T2 and T3) and the planning exercise (T3 only).

T1 (Training Only, N≈360): Participants receive the standard SDDE entrepreneurship bootcamp.
T2 (Training + Social Norms, N≈360): Participants receive the same training plus a brief social norms module in which they reflect on their personal beliefs and their perceptions of what other women in the group think about gender roles and caregiving, and then receive feedback on the group's actual responses.
T3 (Training + Social Norms + Planning, N≈360): Same as T2, followed by a short guided planning exercise focused on caregiving arrangements at home.

The main comparisons of interest are: T2 vs. T1 (effect of adding the norms module to training), T3 vs. T2 (added value of the planning exercise on top of norms), and T3 vs. T1 (combined effect of both components relative to training alone).
Outcomes are measured through three rounds of surveys (baseline, 6 months, and 12 months post-intervention) and administrative records. The primary outcome is the DIME index of business maturity. Secondary outcomes include business formalization (IMIE index), intra-household caregiving arrangements, business income, and gender norm beliefs.
The analysis will follow an intention-to-treat approach. Sample size calculations account for 20% attrition.

Not available

Computer-generated randomization done in office. For each bootcamp, women who confirm attendance are randomly assigned to classrooms using a stratified randomization algorithm implemented in Stata. Stratification variables are business maturity stage (from the DIME index) and demographic characteristics of the entrepreneur. Randomization is performed after enrollment and baseline data collection, as close as possible to the bootcamp date to minimize attrition.

Individual. Women are the unit of randomization. Each woman who confirms attendance to a bootcamp is individually randomly assigned to a classroom. Classrooms are pre-designated to treatment arms (T1, T2, or T3), so the individual assignment to a classroom determines the treatment received. This is not cluster randomization: classrooms are the physical space where treatment is delivered, but assignment is at the individual level.

No

N/A. Randomization is at the individual level.

1,080 women entrepreneurs (approximately 360 per treatment arm)

Approximately 360 women T1 (Training Only), 360 women T2 (Training + Social Norms), 360 women T3 (Training + Social Norms + Planning). These numbers include a 20% buffer for potential attrition, targeting approximately 300 per arm at endline.

Power calculation: Minimum Detectable Effect Size for Main Outcomes: For the primary outcome (DIME Index, 0-5 scale), the control group baseline mean is 2.6 with a standard deviation of 1.1. With 80% power, 5% significance level (two-sided), and accounting for 20% attrition: T1 vs. T2 and T3 pooled: MDE = 0.218 (0.20 SD) T1 vs. T2 or T3 individually: MDE = 0.252 (0.23 SD) For key secondary outcomes: IMIE Index (0-1 scale, SD = 0.35): MDE = 0.069 (pooled), 0.080 (individual arm) Hours in caregiving tasks (mean = 11.75, SD = 1.2): MDE = 0.23 hours (pooled), 0.27 hours (individual arm) Calculations assume individual-level randomization with no clustering adjustment. Baseline values are drawn from previous DIME data collections and the Línea de Base del Cuidado 2022-SM.