Can Business Grants Mitigate a Crisis? Evidence from Youth Entrepreneurs in Kenya during COVID-19

COVID-19 was a major shock to youth entrepreneurs and their businesses in Kenya. This paper studies the causal impact of grants—worth two months of baseline business revenue—and business development services as potential mitigation measures. Using...

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Main Authors:	Domenella, Yanina, Jamison, Julian C., Safir, Abla, Zia, Bilal
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:	BUSINESS GRANT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES BUSINESS TRAINING ENTREPRENEURSHIP YOUTH ENTREPRENEURS PANDEMIC RESPONSE CORONAVIRUS COVID-19
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/259881638890834773/Can-Business-Grants-Mitigate-a-Crisis-Evidence-from-Youth-Entrepreneurs-in-Kenya-during-COVID-19 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36693

id	okr-10986-36693
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-366932021-12-10T05:10:38Z Can Business Grants Mitigate a Crisis? Evidence from Youth Entrepreneurs in Kenya during COVID-19 Domenella, Yanina Jamison, Julian C. Safir, Abla Zia, Bilal BUSINESS GRANT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES BUSINESS TRAINING ENTREPRENEURSHIP YOUTH ENTREPRENEURS PANDEMIC RESPONSE CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 COVID-19 was a major shock to youth entrepreneurs and their businesses in Kenya. This paper studies the causal impact of grants—worth two months of baseline business revenue—and business development services as potential mitigation measures. Using multiple rounds of phone surveys up to seven months from the start of the pandemic, the analysis finds that youth who are assigned business grants or a combination of grants and business development services are significantly more likely to maintain a business, earn more revenue and profits, retain employees, and report higher confidence and satisfaction with life. There are no corresponding effects of business development services alone, although the follow-up period is extremely short for training effects to materialize. These results suggest that cash infusion for young entrepreneurs in times of an aggregate shock can be instrumental in moderating its immediate harmful impacts. 2021-12-09T13:32:26Z 2021-12-09T13:32:26Z 2021-12 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/259881638890834773/Can-Business-Grants-Mitigate-a-Crisis-Evidence-from-Youth-Entrepreneurs-in-Kenya-during-COVID-19 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36693 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9874 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Kenya
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	BUSINESS GRANT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES BUSINESS TRAINING ENTREPRENEURSHIP YOUTH ENTREPRENEURS PANDEMIC RESPONSE CORONAVIRUS COVID-19
spellingShingle	BUSINESS GRANT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES BUSINESS TRAINING ENTREPRENEURSHIP YOUTH ENTREPRENEURS PANDEMIC RESPONSE CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 Domenella, Yanina Jamison, Julian C. Safir, Abla Zia, Bilal Can Business Grants Mitigate a Crisis? Evidence from Youth Entrepreneurs in Kenya during COVID-19
geographic_facet	Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Kenya
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9874
description	COVID-19 was a major shock to youth entrepreneurs and their businesses in Kenya. This paper studies the causal impact of grants—worth two months of baseline business revenue—and business development services as potential mitigation measures. Using multiple rounds of phone surveys up to seven months from the start of the pandemic, the analysis finds that youth who are assigned business grants or a combination of grants and business development services are significantly more likely to maintain a business, earn more revenue and profits, retain employees, and report higher confidence and satisfaction with life. There are no corresponding effects of business development services alone, although the follow-up period is extremely short for training effects to materialize. These results suggest that cash infusion for young entrepreneurs in times of an aggregate shock can be instrumental in moderating its immediate harmful impacts.
format	Working Paper
author	Domenella, Yanina Jamison, Julian C. Safir, Abla Zia, Bilal
author_facet	Domenella, Yanina Jamison, Julian C. Safir, Abla Zia, Bilal
author_sort	Domenella, Yanina
title	Can Business Grants Mitigate a Crisis? Evidence from Youth Entrepreneurs in Kenya during COVID-19
title_short	Can Business Grants Mitigate a Crisis? Evidence from Youth Entrepreneurs in Kenya during COVID-19
title_full	Can Business Grants Mitigate a Crisis? Evidence from Youth Entrepreneurs in Kenya during COVID-19
title_fullStr	Can Business Grants Mitigate a Crisis? Evidence from Youth Entrepreneurs in Kenya during COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed	Can Business Grants Mitigate a Crisis? Evidence from Youth Entrepreneurs in Kenya during COVID-19
title_sort	can business grants mitigate a crisis? evidence from youth entrepreneurs in kenya during covid-19
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2021
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/259881638890834773/Can-Business-Grants-Mitigate-a-Crisis-Evidence-from-Youth-Entrepreneurs-in-Kenya-during-COVID-19 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36693
_version_	1764485739492409344

Can Business Grants Mitigate a Crisis? Evidence from Youth Entrepreneurs in Kenya during COVID-19

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