What Are We Learning from Business Training and Entrepreneurship Evaluations around the Developing World?
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 u...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/09/16748548/learning-business-training-entrepreneurship-evaluations-around-developing-world http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12054 |
| Summary: | 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. |
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