The Economics of Women Entrepreneurship

Last registered on March 12, 2019

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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.

Last updated

March 12, 2019, 9:02 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Uganda

Region

Central region

Primary Investigator

Name

Julia Seither

Affiliation

Universidad del Rosario

Contact Primary Investigator

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 eco- nomic empowerment in settings where women have been traditionally marginalized, but current evidence finds puzzlingly low returns to both financial and human capital interventions. This project 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 the importance of additional mentor- ing visits, and the scalability of the program through implementation partners. Our experimental design allows us to estimate spillover effects of the treatment through a partial phase-in of the intervention and detailed network data on the village level.
This study furthermore provides novel evidence on the impact of women-focused entrepreneur- ship programs on household bargaining power of women and household consumption, and treat- ment effects on participants’ children. We study intergenerational spillovers of the intervention as a key channel for long-term effects. In addition to creating income for participants, the program raises self-confidence and aspirations, and increases forward-looking behavior. Recent experimen- tal evidence points towards the importance of positive role models for children. Therefore, we believe that participating in the program may translate into attitudinal and behavioral changes for children in their social networks that go beyond income effects.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Lang, Megan, Jeremy Magruder and Julia Seither. 2019. "The Economics of Women Entrepreneurship." AEA RCT Registry. March 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3214-2.0

Former Citation

Lang, Megan, Jeremy Magruder and Julia Seither. 2019. "The Economics of Women Entrepreneurship." AEA RCT Registry. March 12. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3214/history/43271

Sponsors & Partners

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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

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 two 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

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 1,800 Children.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

300 women and ~600 children control,
300 women and ~600 children entrepreneurship training with personal mentor visits,
300 women and ~600 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