Training and Technical Assistance for New Entrepreneurs in Morocco

Last registered on March 14, 2016

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Training and Technical Assistance for New Entrepreneurs in Morocco
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000470
Initial registration date
March 14, 2016

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
March 14, 2016, 6:05 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Sciences Po

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Yale University / IPA
PI Affiliation
Université Catholique de Louvain
PI Affiliation
IPA
PI Affiliation
Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique (CREST) and an Associate Professor at ENSAE and École Polytechnique

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2009-09-24
End date
2011-09-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The Enterprise Support Project is intended to increase the profits and improve the survival rates for participating entrepreneurs. The project is an additional component of two existing entrepreneurship promotion programs supported by the Moroccan government. When the programs were first developed, there was little empirical evidence on the effectiveness of post-creation business training and support. In particular, the extent to which the training increases revenues and augments survival rates of new enterprises was unclear, and, as a consequence, whether the benefits exceed the costs of the program. Such evidence is vital to the future design and funding of the program and to address these information gaps, the project teams decided to pursue a rigorous impact evaluation of the proposed Enterprise Support Project. The objective is to measure the specific contribution of the training and support program on key business outcomes. There have been no rigorous evaluations conducted on similar programs in Morocco.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Crépon, Bruno et al. 2016. "Training and Technical Assistance for New Entrepreneurs in Morocco." AEA RCT Registry. March 14. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.470-1.0
Former Citation
Crépon, Bruno et al. 2016. "Training and Technical Assistance for New Entrepreneurs in Morocco." AEA RCT Registry. March 14. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/470/history/7270
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The evaluation randomly assigned enterprises to treatment and control groups to estimate the impact of the Moukawalati and INDH programs on business sales and survival rates. Approximately 600 enterprises will receive the training. Four hundred will be new enterprises initiated under Moukawalati (200 managed by ANPME and 200 managed by OFPPT) and 200 revenue-generating associations initiated under INDH. The treatment and control groups will be randomly selected among the potential beneficiaries. Business training will be provided to the Moukawalati and INDH revenue-generating activities.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2009-11-15
Intervention End Date
2011-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The objective is to measure the specific contribution of the training and support program on key business outcomes.
• Did the Enterprise Support Project contribute to an increase in revenues and profits of the participating entrepreneurs?
• Did the project improve survival rates of businesses?
• Did the program affect local employment?
• Were the benefits generated by the project greater than project costs?

The evaluation will also attempt to measure spill-over effects of the project on the local market and other businesses that do not participate in the project.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The survey will comprise two types of questionnaires. The full entrepreneur/AGR questionnaires will collect the following information at the baseline and endline surveys: General characteristics of the entrepreneur (age, gender, level of education, fields of specialization, professional experience, employment training, enterprise creation, income, wage and characteristics of the household of the entrepreneur); general characteristics of the business (nature of business, type of project (continuing/new), reason for creation, initial investment, sources of financing, type of clientele, number of potential clients, importance of competition, number of staff, internet access); revenues and costs (sales, sources of income, costs, purchases of inputs, calculation of income flows and profits of the activity); knowledge (questions on the entrepreneurs’ knowledge on the area of the training such as management, accounting standards used); and mental ability.

The follow-up questionnaire will collect information on only some parts of the full questionnaire described above. It will also collect specific information on sales over the past three months, salary to the entrepreneur, enterprise accounts, debts, credits, clients, supplier debts, investments. If the enterprise ceases to operate, it will collect information on liquidation, including value of the sale of the assets, debts from banks, suppliers, and others, and net remaining value of the sale. If the enterprise ceases to operate, there will be a module on the economic activity of the entrepreneur with information on income, wages and salaries.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Program participants selected by randomization done in office by a computer, amongst eligible business owners.
Randomization Unit
individual (entrepreneur)
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1,000 entrepreneurs initiated under Moukawalati program managed by ANPME (Agence Nationale pour la Promotion de la Petite et Moyenne Entreprise) and OFPPT (L'office de la Formation Professionelle et de la Promotion du Travail), and 600 revenue generating activities (AGRs) initiated under INDH.
Sample size: planned number of observations
1,000 entrepreneurs initiated under Moukawalati program + 3,000 AGRs members (5 members per revenue generating activities) initiated under INDH
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Treatment: 600 enterprises (400 small firms and 200 revenue generating activities)
Control: 1000 enterprises (600 small firms and 400 revenue generating activities)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
FAS Human Subjects Committee (Yale University)
IRB Approval Date
2009-09-24
IRB Approval Number
0909005732

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials