Unpacking the Determinants of Entrepreneurship Development and Economic Empowerment for Women

This impact evaluation aims to measure the causal impact of the ILO’s Get Ahead business training programme on the profitability, growth and survival of female-owned businesses in Kenya, and to evaluate whether any gains in profitability come at the expense of other business owners. To do so, the evaluation will use a randomized control trial (RCT) methodology with a two-level randomized experiment: randomized selection of villages, and of individuals within villages. The study works with 3,538 individuals in 157 markets. In addition to measuring the impact of this training program, individuals assigned to training are also then randomly assigned to one of three different invitation choice structures to measure the extent to which variations in the way in which people are invited to training affect training take-up.

Policy implications

Business training can contribute to developing larger and more diverse markets and firms in developing countries.

Additional information

Hypotheses/research question

What is the impact of ILO's Get Ahead business training programme on the profitability, growth and survival of female-owned businesses? Will the impact of the training augment when complementary business support services are available? What effect will any gains in profitability have on other business owners?

Study design

Two-level randomisedexperiment: randomised selection of markets, and of individuals within markets

The trial population was found within a sample of markets based in counties selected by the Technical Committee of the ILO Women Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment project. The counties were selected on geographic variation, regional representation, socio-economic development, business culture and none had previously been involved with ILO Women Entrepreneurship Development tools or major enterprise development programmes or women's associations. Medium or large markets centres outside main cities were given a questionnaire, and markets with enough women were chosen to be part of the trial. Within the chosen markets, individual women participated in the trial. They had to pass an eligibility filter: women were required to have reported profits but these could not exceed their sales. They had to have a phone number, be 55 years or younger, could not be running a business dealing only with phone cards or m-pesa, or be running a school. The person responding to the questionnaires could not be an employee and the business could not have more than 3 employees. Profits had to be between 0 and 4,000 KSH and sales in the past week had to be less than or equal to 50,000 KSH. The women had to have at least one year of schooling. After this screening, the sample consisted of 3,538 individuals in 157 markets. Markets were then randomly placed in treatment or control groups, stratified by geographical region and number of women surveyed in market. Within treated markets, individuals were also randomly assigned to treatment or control, stratified based on quartiles of weekly profits reported in the census.

Cost benefit ratio

Not available.

Rounds of data collection

5: at baseline + follow-ups at 9, 12, 21, 24 months.

Baseline data collection and method

Survey.

Data collection method and data collected

Follow-up surveys.

Unit of analysis

Individual; markets

Stratification

Yes: At the market level, stratification took place by geographical region and the number of women surveyed at the market. At the individual level, women were stratified based on quartiles of weekly profits from the census.

Reference

McKenzie, David; Puerto, Susana. 2017. Growing Markets through Business Training for Female Entrepreneurs : A Market-Level Randomized Experiment in Kenya. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7993. World Bank, Washington, DC.

Unpacking the Determinants of Entrepreneurship Development and Economic Empowerment for Women

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Key facts

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