Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary While research is advancing quickly in the area of business training and entrepreneurship evaluations in the developing world, many of the effects are still unknown and are highly dependent on the context. A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>Business training programs are a popular policy option to try to improve the performance of enterprises around the world. The last few years have seen rapid growth in the number of evaluations of these programs in developing countries. This paper undertakes a critical review of these studies with the goal of synthesizing the emerging lessons and understanding the limitations of the existing research and the areas in which more work is needed. It finds that there is substantial heterogeneity in the length, content, and types of firms participating in the training programs evaluated. Many evaluations suffer from low statistical power, measure impacts only within a year of training, and experience problems with survey attrition and measurement of firm profits and revenues. Over these short time horizons, there are relatively modest impacts of training on survivorship of existing firms, but stronger evidence that training programs help prospective owners launch new businesses more quickly. Most studies find that existing firm owners implement some of the practices taught in training, but the magnitudes of these improvements in practices are often relatively modest. Few studies find significant impacts on profits or sales, although a couple of the studies with more statistical power have done so. Some studies have also found benefits to microfinance organizations of offering training. To date there is little evidence to help guide policymakers as to whether any impacts found come from trained firms competing away sales from other businesses versus through productivity improvements, and little evidence to guide the development of the provision of training at market prices. The paper concludes by summarizing some directions and key questions for future studies.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/pdf/10.1596/1813-9450-6202 Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question Are business training programs an effective means of improving business survivorship and start-up, business practices, and profitability and enterprise growth? Do the effects of these programs justify large-scale policy interventions? Sample Trial population and sample selection Various Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups Various Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description Various Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method Various Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Impacts on Startup and Survivorship. Impacts on Business Practices. Impacts on Business Profits and Sales. Impacts on Employment. Impacts on Microfinance Institution Outcomes.</p> Results <p>While the evidence involving randomised trials evaluating business training has grown rapidly, methodological concerns pose major limitations on what we can infer. Although clear answers do not yet exist for these important, large-scale policy interventions, researchers are advancing quickly using improved experimental techniques. The next generation of studies will benefit from the following elements: Much larger samples or more homogeneous firms. Better measurement of outcomes. Designing experiments to measure spillovers. Measuring trajectories of outcomes over longer periods of time. Understanding market failures and building market-based solutions.</p> Intervention costs Various Cost benefit ratio Reference McKenzie, D., &Woodruff, C., 2012. 'What Are We Learning from Business Training and Entrepreneurship Evaluations around the Developing World?'. Policy Research Working Paper Series 6202, The World Bank. Citation for use in academic references
