Skills training and business outcomes: Experimental evidence from Liberia

Dammert, AC (通讯作者),Carleton Univ, Dept Econ, Ottawa, ON, Canada.;Dammert, AC (通讯作者),Carleton Univ, Sch Int Affairs, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
2023-2
Small firms account for a large share of employment in developing countries. A standard approach aimed at improving start-up, survival, and growth entails training the entrepreneur in basic managerial and technical skills. However, recent meta-analyses find that standard business training programs result in modest impacts on the sales and profits of entrepreneurs in developing countries. More recently, there has been a growing interest in studying whether training programs that aim to increase the stock of soft skills associated with successful entrepreneurship can impact business outcomes. This study adds to this line of work by testing the relative effectiveness of providing standard training complemented with inter-personal skills training. Targeting about 570 small entrepreneurs in Liberia, the main findings show that the combined training does not result in additional gains in profits and sales relative to the standard training. However, training on soft skills seems to reinforce the message given in the traditional training about long-term goals. Both training programs have no impact on self-reported customer experiences and satisfaction.(c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
WORLD DEVELOPMENT
卷号:162
ISSN:0305-750X|收录类别:SSCI
语种
英语
来源机构
Carleton University; Carleton University
资助信息
We thank BRAC Liberia and the Business StartUp Center for their help in the implementation of this project. In particular, we thank Mulbah Nyetuan, Fahn Meaka, and Titoe Jeremy. Maria Josefina Baez and Cecilia Velazquez provided excellent research assistance. We benefitted from comments received at the 2018 and 2019 PEP Annual Conferences, 2019 Seminar at IDRC, 2021 CEGA Global Workshop, the 2021 Canadian Economics Association, and seminar participants at the University of Ohio. We especially thank two anonymous referees and Habiba Djebbari for her comments and suggestions. This work was carried out with financial and scientific support from the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP), with funding from the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom (or UK Aid) and the Government of Canada through the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of PEP. AEA RCT Registry number: AEARCTR-0002481.
被引频次(WOS)
0
被引频次(其他)
0
180天使用计数
2
2013以来使用计数
2
EISSN
1873-5991
出版年
2023-2
DOI
10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106120
关键词
Business training Entrepreneurship Business practices Soft skills Liberia
资助机构
Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom (or UK Aid)(CGIAR) Government of Canada through the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
WOS学科分类
Development Studies Economics
学科领域
循证经济学 循证社会学