Back to Search
Start Over
Teaching Entrepreneurship: Impact of Business Training on Microfinance Clients and Institutions
- Source :
- Review of Economics and Statistics. 93:510-527
- Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- Can one teach basic entrepreneurship skills, or are they fixed personal characteristics? Most academic and development policy discussions about microentrepreneurs focus on their access to credit, and assume their human capital to be fixed. The self-employed poor rarely have any formal training in business skills. However, a growing number of microfinance organizations are attempting to build the human capital of micro-entrepreneurs in order to improve the livelihood of their clients and help further their mission of poverty alleviation. Using a randomized control trial, we measure the marginal impact of adding business training to a Peruvian group lending program for female microentrepreneurs. Treatment groups received thirty to sixty minute entrepreneurship training sessions during their normal weekly or monthly banking meeting over a period of one to two years. Control groups remained as they were before, meeting at the same frequency but solely for making loan and savings payments. We find that the treatment led to improved business knowledge, practices and revenues. The program also improved repayment and client retention rates for the microfinance institution. Larger effects found for those that expressed less interest in training in a baseline survey. This has important implications for implementing similar market-based interventions with a goal of recovering costs.
- Subjects :
- Economics and Econometrics
Entrepreneurship
Population
jel:D21
jel:I21
Human capital
law.invention
Treatment and control groups
jel:J24
Adult education
law
0502 economics and business
050207 economics
Marketing
10. No inequality
Human resources
education
education.field_of_study
Microfinance
jel:C93
entrepreneurship, microfinance, business training, business skills, adult education
business.industry
05 social sciences
1. No poverty
jel:D12
jel:D13
Loan
jel:O12
8. Economic growth
business
050203 business & management
Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
Subjects
Details
- Volume :
- 93
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Review of Economics and Statistics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....60f31c7ec8c806ab4333c84a4ded9384