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 A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>We investigate the impact of a program providing asset transfers and business training to low income individuals in Chile, and asked whether a larger asset transfer would magnify the program's impact. We randomly assigned participation in a large scale, publicly run micro-entrepreneurship program and evaluated its effects over 45 months. The program improved business practices, employment, and labor income. In the short run, self-employment increased by 14.8/25.2 percentage points for a small/large asset transfer. In the long run, individuals assigned to a smaller transfer were 9 percentage points more likely to become wage workers, whereas those assigned to larger transfers tended to remain self-employed.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20150245 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 Does providing a larger asset transfer magnifies the program impact for micro-entrepreneurs? Sample Trial population and sample selection The population consists of individuals who applied to MESP in 2010 in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago. Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description A random sample of beneficiaries of the "Micro-Entrepreneurship Support Program" (MESP) received an additional US$240 asset transfer on top of the regular MESP intervention. This additional transfer was implemented with the objective to provide evidence on the optimal level of transfers. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method surveys were contracted out to a third-party Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Outcomes: Self-employment rates, Employment rates, Labor income, Hours worked. These are measured over 45 months post-intervention.</p> Results <p>The intervention increases employment and income, with the greatest effect on those who were unemployed or self-employed at baseline (impact on wage earners is only positive for those that are also low income)</p> Intervention costs 1. Normal MESP= $1,200 2.MESP+ (added asset transfer)= $1,400 Cost benefit ratio Reference Martínez A., C., Puentes, E., Ruiz-Tagle, J. (2018). 'The Effects of Micro-entrepreneurship Programs on Labor Market Performance: Experimental Evidence from Chile'. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Citation for use in academic references
