IGL database (beta)

Year Title Short summary Country Author
2022 Give Me a Pass: Flexible Credit for Entrepreneurs in Colombia

Microcredit promised business growth for small firms lacking access to banking loans. Although microcredit has reached millions, recent randomized evaluations find limited average business impacts. Critics often blame contract rigidity, specifically the fixed and frequent installments, for the lack of productive risk-taking. But such rigidity may instill borrower discipline. This study partnered with a Colombian lender that offered first-time borrowers a flexible loan that permitted delaying up to three monthly repayments.

 Brune, L., Giné, X., Karlan, D.
2022 Impact Evaluation of an Intervention on Small and Medium Enterprises in Chile

This impact evaluation aims to measure the effect of a program that combines business training, mentoring, and a large cash transfer on high-potential small and medium businesses in Chile. 250 out of the top 500 firms participating in a business plan competition will be randomly selected to receive all three components of the program, while the remaining firms will receive none of them. In-person surveys with the entrepreneurs will be conducted before and 12 months after the program.

 Huneeus, F., Martínez Alvear, C., Woodruff, C.
2022 The Impact of Soft-Skills Training for Entrepreneurs in Jamaica

A randomized control trial with 945 entrepreneurs in Jamaica shows positive shortterm impacts of soft-skills training on business outcomes. The effects are concentrated among men, and disappear twelve months after the training.

 Ubfal, D., Arraiz, I., Beuermann, D., Frese, M., Maffioli, A., Verch, D.
2022 Training, Communications Patterns, and Spillovers Inside Organizations

We study direct productivity changes and spillovers after a randomized training program for the frontline workers in a Colombian government agency. While trained workers improved their individual production, we also find substantial spillovers that affected managers' productivity. We use email data and a survey to explore the mechanisms behind these spillovers and find that managers' increased output arises from reductions in the need to help lower level employees.

 Espinosa, M., Stanton, C.
2022 Impact Evaluation of Entrepreneurship Training

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.

 Fairlie, R., Turner, P.
2022 Impact Evaluation of an Intervention on Small and Medium Enterprises in Chile

This impact evaluation aims to measure the effect of a program that combines business training, mentoring, and a large cash transfer on high-potential small and medium businesses in Chile. 250 out of the top 500 firms participating in a business plan competition will be randomly selected to receive all three components of the program, while the remaining firms will receive none of them. In-person surveys with the entrepreneurs will be conducted before and 12 months after the program.

 Huneeus, F., Martínez Alvear, C., Woodruff, C.
2022 The Impact of Soft-Skills Training for Entrepreneurs in Jamaica

A randomized control trial with 945 entrepreneurs in Jamaica shows positive shortterm impacts of soft-skills training on business outcomes. The effects are concentrated among men, and disappear twelve months after the training.

 Ubfal, D., Arraiz, I., Beuermann, D., Frese, M., Maffioli, A., Verch, D.
2022 Are Experts Blinded by Feasibility? Experimental Evidence from a NASA Robotics Challenge

Resource allocation decisions play a dominant role in shaping a firm’s technological trajectory and competitive advantage. Recent work indicates that innovative firms and scientific institutions tend to exhibit an anti-novelty bias when evaluating new projects and ideas. In this paper, we focus on shedding light into this observed pattern by examining how evaluator expertise in the problem’s focal domain shapes the relationship between novelty and feasibility in evaluations of quality for technical solutions.

 Crusan, J., Lakhani, K., Lane, J., Menietti, M., Szajnfarber, Z.
2022 Leadership by Example to Empower Wineries to Take Action to Address Climate Change: Evidence from Japan

Climate change poses an urgent and existential threat to the wine sector. However, it is not easy for wineries and farmers to take action to reduce carbon emission comparing to adaptation. How can we encourage these actions? Farmers often seek information before take action, which influences their current risk perceptions of extreme weather condition or moral norms. Regarding the information, a positive approach focusing on empowering farmers to take action to address climate change is generally more successful at engaging people and minimizing defensive reactions.

 Yokoo, H.-F., Kubo, T., Sasaki H.
2022 Capacity Building as a Route to Export Market Expansion : A Six-Country Experiment in the Western Balkans

The limited market size of many small emerging economies is a key constraint to the growth of innovative small and medium enterprises. Exporting offers a potential solution, but firms may struggle to locate and appeal to foreign buyers. A six-country randomized experiment was conducted with 225 firms in the Western Balkans to test the effectiveness of 30 hours of live group-based training and 5 hours of one-on-one remote consulting in overcoming these constraints.

 Cusolito, A.P., Darova, O., Mckenzie, D.J.
2022 Evaluation of the Evolve Digital programme to promote digital adoption in family firms: A Randomised Control Trial

The ‘Evolve Digital’ trial was developed with the objective of boosting digital adoption in small family firms through identifying a cost-effective, yet productivity-enhancing programme of peer group learning for small family businesses, which can be replicated throughout the country.

 Jibril, H., Mensmann, M., Roper, S., Scott, D.
2022 Impact Evaluation of an Intervention on Small and Medium Enterprises in Chile

This impact evaluation aims to measure the effect of a program that combines business training, mentoring, and a large cash transfer on high-potential small and medium businesses in Chile. 250 out of the top 500 firms participating in a business plan competition will be randomly selected to receive all three components of the program, while the remaining firms will receive none of them. In-person surveys with the entrepreneurs will be conducted before and 12 months after the program.

 Huneeus, F., Martínez Alvear, C., Woodruff, C.
2022 Fintech Adoption by Retail Firms in an Emerging Market: Experimental Evidence of Tech, Marketing, and Financial Interventions

Across developing economies, cash is the conduit for retail transactions. Policymakers, multinational product manufacturers and marketers of electronic payment systems are interested in understanding how to stimulate the growth of electronic payments in emerging markets. In this paper, we investigate what hinders the adoption of e-payment technology by traditional retailers, in particular, whether barriers to adoption are technological, informational or financial in nature.

 Anderson, S., Kankanhalli, S., Iacovone, L., Narayanan, S.
2022 The Impact of Soft-Skills Training for Entrepreneurs in Jamaica

A randomized control trial with 945 entrepreneurs in Jamaica shows positive shortterm impacts of soft-skills training on business outcomes. The effects are concentrated among men, and disappear twelve months after the training.

 Ubfal, D., Arraiz, I., Beuermann, D., Frese, M., Maffioli, A., Verch, D.
2021 Building customers and markets for SMEs through online training

This experiment tests the impact of a program with the main goal of helping firms to attract new customers, expand markets, adapt their business model, and bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic by boosting demand for their products.

 Cusolito, A.P., McKenzie, D.
2021 Improving Workplace Climate in Large Corporations: A Clustered Randomized Intervention

This project evaluated the impact of a program aiming to improve the workplace climate in corporations.

 Alan, S., Corekcioglu, G., Sutter, M.
2021 Online-based entrepreneurship education - Its role and effects: a randomized controlled trial about the effects of an online entrepreneurship...

A randomised controlled trial has been performed in which 580 randomly selected pupils (aged 14-15) have been randomly assigned to participate in online programmes that focus either on entrepreneurship or on environmental issues. . The short-term results show that the programme focusing on entrepreneurship had a significantly positive influence on the participants’ entrepreneurial intentions, venture creation self-efficacy, entrepreneurial attitudes and perceived knowledge about entrepreneurship

 Denmark Moberg, S. K.
2021 Modernizing Retailers in an Emerging Market: Investigating Externally-focused and Internally-focused Approaches

This paper studies the impact of business modernization on the sales performance of traditional retailers. We define modernization as adopting tangible structures and business practices of organized retail chains (for example, exterior signage with store name and logo, or a database to record product-level information). To address our research question, we implement a randomized field experiment in Mexico City with 1148 traditional retail firms.

 Anderson-Macdonald, S., Kankanhalli, S., Iacovone, L., Narayanan, S.
2021 Making Entrepreneurs: Returns to Training Youth in Hard Versus Soft Business Skills

This paper studies the medium-term impacts of the Skills for Effective Entrepreneurship Development (SEED) program, an innovative in-residence 3-week mini-MBA program for high school students modeled after western business school curricula and adapted to the Ugandan context.

 Uganda Chioda, L., Contreras-Loya, D., Gertler, P., Carney, D.
2021 When do Entrepreneurs Benefit from Acting Like Scientists? A Field Experiment in the UK

Prior research suggests that firms in entrepreneurial settings benefit from a scientific approach to decision making that combines cognitive and evidence-based components. But to what extent and under what conditions is the scientific approach to decision-making associated with superior performance?

 UK Novelli , E., Spina, C.
2021 Big Loans to Small Businesses: Predicting Winners and Losers in an Entrepreneurial Lending Experiment

We experimentally study the impact of substantially larger enterprise loans, in collaboration with an Egyptian lender. Larger loans generate small average impacts, but machine learning using psychometric data reveals dramatic heterogeneity. Top-performers (i.e., those with the highest predicted treatment effects) substantially increase profits, whereas profits for poor-performers drop. The magnitude of this difference implies that an individual lender’s credit allocation choices matter for aggregate income.

 Bryan, G., Karlan, D., Osman A.
2021 How Do Managers’ Beliefs about New Technologies Evolve? Informational Interventions and the Adoption of Energy-Efficient Stitching Motors in Bangladesh

This project aims to understand the determinants of adoption of a new technology by firms in Bangladesh's leather goods and footwear industry.

Chaurey, R., Gu, Y., Nayyar, G., Sharma, S., Verhoogen, E.
2021 A Scientific Approach to Innovation Management: Evidence from Four Field Experiments

The model shows that managers and entrepreneurs make better decisions under uncertainty if they adopt a scientific approach in which they formulate and test theories.

 Camuffo, A., Gambardella, A., Messinese, D., Novelli, E., Paolucci, E., Spina, C.
2021 How Do Managers’ Beliefs about New Technologies Evolve? Informational Interventions and the Adoption of Energy-Efficient Stitching Motors in Bangladesh

This project aims to understand the determinants of adoption of a new technology by firms in Bangladesh's leather goods and footwear industry.

Chaurey, R., Gu, Y., Nayyar, G., Sharma, S., Verhoogen, E.
2021 Diversity and Performance in Entrepreneurial Teams

This paper studies the role of diversity and performance in the entrepreneurial teams.

US Calder-Wang, S., Gompers, P., Huang, K.
2021 How Do Managers’ Beliefs about New Technologies Evolve? Informational Interventions and the Adoption of Energy-Efficient Stitching Motors in Bangladesh

This project aims to understand the determinants of adoption of a new technology by firms in Bangladesh's leather goods and footwear industry.

Chaurey, R., Gu, Y., Nayyar, G., Sharma, S., Verhoogen, E.
2021 What Prevents More Small Firms from Using Professional Business Services ? An Information and Quality-Rating Experiment in Nigeria

This study asks why more small firms in developing countries do not use the market for professional business services like accounting, marketing, and human resource specialists and asks how this could be altered.

Anderson S., Mckenzie D.
2021 How Do Managers’ Beliefs about New Technologies Evolve? Informational Interventions and the Adoption of Energy-Efficient Stitching Motors in Bangladesh

This project aims to understand the determinants of adoption of a new technology by firms in Bangladesh's leather goods and footwear industry.

Chaurey, R., Gu, Y., Nayyar, G., Sharma, S., Verhoogen, E.
2021 Evaluating the Impact of Entrepreneurship Edutainment in Egypt: An experimental approach with peer effects

This trial measures the impact of an edutainment program specifically designed to promote entrepreneurship among young adult viewers in Egypt.

Egypt Barsoum, G., Crépon, B., Gardiner, D., Michel, B., Parienté, W.
2021 Aspirations and Financial Decisions: Experimental Evidence from the Philippines

This randomised experiment tested the impact of exogenously inducing higher financial aspirations among poor entrepreneurs.

 McKenzie, D., Mohpal, A., Yang D.

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