Assessing the impacts of entrepreneurship and vocational training in Nepal

Last registered on February 22, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Assessing the impacts of entrepreneurship and vocational training in Nepal
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007207
Initial registration date
February 20, 2021

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
February 22, 2021, 12:07 PM EST

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Sydney

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2014-02-01
End date
2015-08-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This research evaluates two programs, entrepreneurship and vocational trainings, implemented by Employment Fund (EF) across 30 districts of Nepal in early 2014. The vocational training program is unusual in two respects: a) training providers are paid more if the trainees are employed; and b) it is offered only to extremely poor individuals. The entrepreneurship program also has the incentive feature, but does not explicitly target extremely poor individuals. The impact of the programs is estimated by comparing individuals in treatment and control groups who are randomly assigned to those groups from a pool of program applicants. The research design also allows one to estimate the ‘selection effect’ of training institutes by comparing treatment groups generated through randomly selected applicants with the treatment groups selected by the training institutes.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chowdhury, Shyamal and Uttam Sharma. 2021. "Assessing the impacts of entrepreneurship and vocational training in Nepal ." AEA RCT Registry. February 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7207-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This research evaluates two programs, entrepreneurship and vocational trainings, implemented by Employment Fund (EF) across 30 districts of Nepal in early 2014. The vocational training program is unusual in two respects: a) training providers are paid more if the trainees are employed; and b) it is offered only to extremely poor individuals. The entrepreneurship program also has the incentive feature, but does not explicitly target extremely poor individuals. The impact of the programs is estimated by comparing individuals in treatment and control groups who are randomly assigned to those groups from a pool of program applicants. The research design also allows one to estimate the ‘selection effect’ of training institutes by comparing treatment groups generated through randomly selected applicants with the treatment groups selected by the training institutes.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2014-03-01
Intervention End Date
2014-12-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The main research questions we intend to address are:
a) Are these two vocational and entrepreneurship training programs effective in that their trainees find jobs and create new businesses?
b) What kind of jobs do the trainees get, and what are the impacts on their incomes?
c) What is the extent, if any, of “selection effect”? Are the estimated impacts of the training interventions on the randomly selected program participants different from those on the trainees selected by the training providers?
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study is based on a randomized control trial. The sample size is 1,525 (50 training events with about 30 people in each event across Nepal). The administration of a baseline survey was done in March-April 2014. Of these 1,525 applicants’, 1036 (34 events) are allocated to the vocational training, while 489 are allocated to the entrepreneurship training . Furthermore, of the 1036 vocational training applicants, 512 persons (17 events) were randomly assigned to a group where training participants are selected by the Training & Employment (T & E) providers. The remaining 1001 persons (33 events), which also includes 489 applicants for the entrepreneurship training, were randomly assigned to a group where the program is evaluated by randomly assigning applicants into treatment and control groups.

Only after the baseline survey was completed, applicants knew whether they were in treatment or control group. Of the 489 shortlisted applicants for entrepreneurship training, 339 were randomly assigned to treatment group and 150 to control group. For the vocational training events that were randomized, 373 were assigned to treatment group and 139 to control group. Similarly, of the 524 in the non-randomized group, the training providers had assigned 373 in the treatment group and 151 in the control group.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individuals within the training
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1525 from 50 training
Sample size: planned number of observations
1525
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1085 in various treatment arms, and 440 in control groups
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC)
IRB Approval Date
2014-01-29
IRB Approval Number
Project No.: 2013/980

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
October 31, 2014, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Yes
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
1525
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials