Impact Evaluation of Entrepreneurship Training

Last registered on August 03, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Impact Evaluation of Entrepreneurship Training
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009876
Initial registration date
August 02, 2022

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 03, 2022, 3:12 PM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Patrick Turner
Affiliation
University of Notre Dame
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Robert Fairlie
PI Affiliation
University of California Santa Cruz
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-08-01
End date
2027-06-30
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
Entrepreneurship Training
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This project is a collaboration with Corner to Corner to study the impact of their entrepreneurship training course on financial stability. Corner to Corner, a Nashville-based nonprofit, is focused on their mission of helping their neighbors to flourish and addressing the racial wealth gap. One of their primary programs is The Academy, a 10-week entrepreneurship training course that teaches students the fundamentals of starting and operating their own business. To study the effects of the intervention, eligible applicants to the Academy will be randomly assigned into one of two groups: the treatment group (offered a seat in the class) and the control group (not offered a seat in the class). This study will use a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the intervention against the control group that does not have access to the Academy. The goal of the study is to enroll 1200 individuals over 3 years into the treatment group and an additional 1200 individuals into the control group, for a total of 2400 study participants. We hypothesize that a community-based, fundamentals-focused entrepreneurship training course such as The Academy will empower participants to start their own businesses. Outcomes measured in administrative records and with a one-year followup survey will include housing stability, creditworthiness and use of credit, feelings of confidence in one’s financial capabilities, and whether participants successfully start and maintain their own businesses.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Fairlie, Robert and Patrick Turner. 2022. "Impact Evaluation of Entrepreneurship Training." AEA RCT Registry. August 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9876-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The Academy is a 10-week, beginners-level entrepreneurship training course. Interested individuals apply to and complete a brief baseline survey. Applicants are randomly selected to be offered a seat in The Academy. The cost of enrollment is $140, which covers the cost of the curriculum. Once enrolled in the class, participants attend weekly 2.5 hour sessions for 10 weeks. The final class of the program is a block party to celebrate participants’ graduation from the course, where graduates will share their products and services with the community. The class is community-led and community-located, meaning that all of the facilitators are alumni of The Academy and classes are hosted by community organizations such as churches and community centers.
In contrast to other entrepreneurship training courses that have been studied before, the Academy caters their services to individuals with less experience and begins training with business fundamentals. Most of the students in the Academy identify as Black women, which is a different population than those on which previous studies focused.
Intervention Start Date
2022-09-06
Intervention End Date
2025-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Business ownership
Business earnings (“money made per year from a business or side hustle”)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Total income
Employed (either business owner or wage/salary job)
Number of employees
Business formalization (e.g., incorporation, registration, and having an employer-identification number)
Creditworthiness and use of credit
Financial well-being index
Mental well-being index
Social inclusion
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Financial well-being index: Constructed as a single standardized index of financial well-being using responses to questions related to banking, savings, and financial capability
Mental well-being index: Constructed as a single standardized index of responses to questions to mental health-related questions in the followup survey

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will recruit study participants from applicants to The Academy. Each applicant completes a form that includes demographic and socioeconomic information that will be used as potential baseline covariates, as well as a consent form.
We will implement randomization using the list of applicants prior to the start of each program cohort. At the end of a program cohort’s recruitment period, all applicants will be entered into a lottery to determine treatment status (treatment or control).
Individuals assigned to the treatment group are offered access to The Academy. Those assigned to the control group are not offered a spot in the class and will be redirected to other community resources that are not related to entrepreneurial training.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done on an office computer using Stata’s pseudo-random number generator. For each program cohort, Corner to Corner will send the research team the full list of individuals who applied to The Academy, including those who consented to the study and those who did not. We will select 50 percent of the applicants to be assigned to the treatment group. The remaining applicants will be assigned to the control group.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Not applicable
Sample size: planned number of observations
2400 total individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
- 1200 individuals in treatment group
- 1200 individuals in control group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
We assume a post-randomization take-up rate of 60 percent (share of treatment group who enroll in the program), 80 percent power, a type-1 error rate of 5 percent, and that baseline covariates will control for 20 percent of residual variation in the outcome. We estimate that roughly 85 percent of the 2,400 study participants will complete a followup survey. Finally, we base control group means on the reported outcomes in the Final Evaluation of Project GATE (Benus et al., 2009). Business ownership at endline: 9.1 percentage point increase among those who enrolled in the program; 5.5 pp increase for the entire treatment group (mean = 0.41)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
The University of Notre Dame Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2022-06-15
IRB Approval Number
22-05-7256
Analysis Plan

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