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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.	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.
Last Published	August 05, 2018 11:53 PM	March 12, 2019 09:02 PM
Experimental Design (Public)	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.	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.
Planned Number of Observations	900 Women and 3,600 Children.	900 Women and 1,800 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.	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.