Entrepreneurship in Development: Four Essays on Microfinance and Business Training

Which is the most binding constraint to microenterprise development, human capital or financial capital? To answer this question, we present the first field experiment that jointly investigates these two constraints for poor microentrepreneurs, by introducing separate treatments of business training and a business grant. We combine survey data and data from a lab experiment to investigate treatment effects on business results, business practices, business skills and mind-set. Our study demonstrates a strong effect of business training on male entrepreneurs, while the effect on female entrepreneurs is much more muted. There is no effect of the business grant for either males or females. The results suggest that human capital may be the more important constraint for poor microentrepreneurs, but also point to the need for more comprehensive measures to promote development among female entrepreneursnhhph

On the Doorstep of Adulthood: Empowering Economic and Fertility Choices of Young Women

We report from a large-scale randomized controlled trial of women empowerment in Tanzania investigating how two different empowerment strategies, economic empowerment and reproductive health empowerment, shape the economic and fertility choices of young women when they transition into adulthood. The analysis builds on a rich data set (survey, experimental, and medical data) collected over more than five years. The economic empowerment reduces poverty, while teenage pregnancy increases with both economic and reproductive health empowerment. The increase in fertility comes from a positive income effect and by women entering earlier into a relationship. We also provide evidence of the importance of social norms and labor market flexibility in explaining the income and relationship effects on fertility. The findings provide new insights on the economics of fertility, and show the importance of a comprehensive approach to women empowerment

MODEL KEMITRAAN BISNIS DONAT MADU CIHANJUANG: Studi Deskriptif pada Mitra Usaha Donat Madu Cihanjuang Se-Bandung Raya

Latar belakang penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui model pengembangan bisnis yang dilakukan oleh Donat Madu Cihanjuang melalui model kemitraan. Dalam penelitian ini difokuskan pada model kemitraan pola waralaba sesuai yang diterapkan bisnis tersebut dengan subyek penelitian mitra usaha Donat Madu Cihanjuang yang berada di kawasan Bandung Raya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui (1) Gambaran umum mengenai alur kerja kemitraan Donat Madu Cihanjuang se-Bandung Raya (2) Kualitas hubungan kemitraan (3) Efektifitas pemasaran masing-masing mitra usaha (4) Tingkat keberhasilan usaha masing-masing mitra usaha. Metode yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif kuantitatif dan kualitatif. Teknik pengumpulan data yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini melalui studi kepustakaan, observasi dan instrument angket. Data yang telah terkumpul kemudian dianalisis melalui tahap display data, verifikasi data dan penegasan kesimpulan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan: (1) Ketepatan alur kemitraan pola waralaba berada pada kriteria tinggi (2) Kualitas hubungan kemitraan berada pada kriteria sangat tinggi (3) efektifitas pemasaran berada pada kriteria tinggi (4) Tingkat keberhasilan usaha berada pada kriteria tinggi. ---------- The background in this research is to find out about business model developing of Donat Madu Cihanjuang by means of partnership model. This research focusing to partnership model system franchise that appropriate and applying from this business. Subject in this research is Donat Madu Cihanjuang partners in Bandung Metropolitan area. This research aims to know about (1) activity groove partnership of Donat Madu Cihanjuang in Bandung Metropolitan area (2) Quality of partner relationship (3) Marketing product efectivity each labor partnership (4) Level of business success each labor partnership. This research using quantitative and qualitative descriptive method. The techniques of collection data by study literature, observation and questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed through the stage of data display, data verification, and finally through the assertion conclusion. This result show that are (1) activity groove partnership is in high criteria (2) Quality of partner relationship is in very high criteria (3) Marketing product efectivity is in high criteria (4) Level of business success is in high criteria

Gender, Social Norms, and Entrepreneurship

In this paper, we analyze two puzzles on entrepreneurship and gender. First, a number of field experiments in developing countries on business training and business grants have shown that it is very difficult to raise entrepreneurial outcomes for female entrepreneurs. Second, women tend to be over-represented in the informal sector in developing countries, and in particular in microfinance institutions. We present a simple model of entrepreneurship that aims to explain these two puzzles. In the model, entrepreneurship arises from the interaction of ability, access to capital and labor investments. To this, we add two social norms that are widespread in developing countries (but not only): women have domestic obligations that restrict the time they can dedicate to their businesses (while men do not); and women have less access to capital than men. Consequently, women self-select into the informal sector since it requires less capital and labor investment. The model also indicates that raising entrepreneurial capabilities of time-constrained women in just one or two dimensions, like ability (via business training) and capital (via business grants), might not be sufficient to promote entrepreneurial success. We present evidence that supports these hypotheses using data from a field experiment in Tanzania with microfinance clients

Competitive in the lab, successful in the field?

-This is the author's version (preprint) of the article: "Competitive in the lab, successful in the field?" Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 2015, doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2014.11.014A number of lab experiments in recent years have analyzed people’s willingness to com-pete. But to what extent is competitive behavior in the lab associated with field choicesand outcomes? We address this question in a setting of entrepreneurship, where we com-bine lab evidence on competitiveness with field evidence on investment, employment,profit, and sales. We find strong evidence that competitiveness in the lab is positively asso-ciated with competitive choices in the field (investment and employment) and weaker,but suggestive, evidence of a positive link to successful field outcomes (profit and sales).Other non-cognitive skills measured in the lab, including risk- and time preferences andconfidence, and cognitive skills are less consistently associated with the field variables.Our findings suggest that the willingness to compete in the lab identifies an importantentrepreneurial trait that shapes the entrepreneur’s field choices and to some extent alsofield outcomes

Business Training in Tanzania: From Research-driven Experiment to Local Implementation

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Journal of African Economies, following peer review. The version of record Journal of African Economies 2012, 21(5):808-827 is available online at: http://jae.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/5/808.Field experiments documenting positive treatment effects have a strong policy message: scale up! However, such experiments are typically implemented under close supervision of the research group in charge of the study. In contrast, scaling up would typically imply relying on local organisation. It is not obvious that the positive treatment effects identified in the research-driven intervention can be replicated locally. The present study explicitly addresses this challenge by analysing the local version of a research-driven business training programme among microfinance entrepreneurs in Tanzania. Comparing the local programme with the research-led programme in terms of attendance and subjective evaluation, we find that success in local implementation cannot be taken for granted. Moreover, an analysis of long-term outcomes also demonstrates a weaker impact of the local programme. We conclude that the estimated effect of research-led interventions should be interpreted as an upper bound of what can be achieved when scaling up such interventions locally

Competitive in the lab, successful in the field?

A number of lab experiments in recent years have analyzed people’s willingness to compete. But to what extent is competitive behavior in the lab associated with field choices and outcomes? We address this question in a setting of entrepreneurship, where we combine lab evidence on competitiveness with field evidence on investment, employment, profit, and sales. We find strong evidence that competitiveness in the lab is positively associated with competitive choices in the field (investment and employment) and weaker, but suggestive, evidence of a positive link to successful field outcomes (profit and sales). Other non-cognitive skills measured in the lab, including risk- and time preferences and confidence, and cognitive skills are less consistently associated with the field variables. Our findings suggest that the willingness to compete in the lab identifies an important entrepreneurial trait that shapes the entrepreneur’s field choices and to some extent also field outcomes

Reducing Early Pregnancy in Low-Income Countries : a literature review and new evidence

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