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The Economics of Women Entrepreneurship

Last registered on August 05, 2018
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Economics of Women Entrepreneurship
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003214
Initial registration date
August 04, 2018

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
August 05, 2018, 11:53 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Uganda
Region
Central region

Primary Investigator

Name
Julia Seither
Affiliation
Universidad del Rosario
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Jeremy Magruder
PI Affiliation
Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, University of California at Berkeley
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Megan Lang
PI Affiliation
Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, University of California at Berkeley
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2018-08-06
End date
2022-02-28
Keywords
Firms & Productivity, Gender, Other
Additional Keywords
Household Dynamics, Aspirations
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Female-owned enterprises have the potential to spur inclusive growth and contribute to economic empowerment in settings where women have been traditionally marginalized, but current evidence finds puzzlingly low returns to both financial and human capital interventions. This study aims at understanding whether a holistic entrepreneurship program that tackles multiple growth constraints simultaneously can promote business growth, and its consequences for household dynamics. We estimate the growth impacts of an entrepreneurship program specifically designed for low education participants on business outcomes as well as its impact on spousal contributions to household expenses and aspirations of children connected to participating women.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
, , Jeremy Magruder and Julia Seither. 2018. "The Economics of Women Entrepreneurship." AEA RCT Registry. August 05. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3214
Former Citation
, , Jeremy Magruder and Julia Seither. 2018. "The Economics of Women Entrepreneurship." AEA RCT Registry. August 05. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3214/history/32668
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2018-08-20
Intervention End Date
2020-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Business growth, female (economic) empowerment, agency.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Business growth will be measured by sales and profits as well as number of paid employees, business assets, and number of businesses.
Economic empowerment will be measured as contributions to household expenditures and household assets.
General empowerment will be measured by psychometric indicators such as grit or aspirations.
Agency and empowerment for children will be measured by psychometric indicators and aspirations regarding schooling and personal life decisions.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will conduct a randomized control trial (RCT) with 900 women and three groups, randomized at the level of the individual participant.
300 women in the first treatment arm will receive an entrepreneurship program, which includes 3 one-on-one visits with mentors at the participant’s business or home. 300 women in the second treatment arm will receive the program except that meetings with mentors will occur at the training site, and participants will have to actively sign up for the meetings rather than automatically receiving them. 300 women in the third group will function as a control and not receive any skills training or mentoring opportunities.

Our experimental design allows us to test the following hypotheses on business growth:
(1) The returns to the program are positive.
(2) The returns to mentoring when participants have to select into office hours are equal to the returns to mentoring visits for all participants.

For each sampled woman we will interview four connected children in the age of 10-17. We will elicit the social network of each child to estimate the degree of connectedness with program participants. This will allow us to estimate inter-generational spillover effects of the program.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Private lottery at site of baseline survey.
Randomization Unit
Household level for inter-generational effects, and individual randomization for direct program effects.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
900 Households.
Sample size: planned number of observations
900 Women and 3,600 Children.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
300 women and ~1200 children control,
300 women and ~1200 children entrepreneurship training with personal mentor visits,
300 women and ~1200 children entrepreneurship training with office hour mentors.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Committee for Protection of Human Subjects, University of California at Berkeley
IRB Approval Date
2018-06-26
IRB Approval Number
00006252
Analysis Plan