A Firm of One’s Own: Experimental Evidence on Credit Constraints and Occupational Choice
Published in Review of Economics and Statistics (accepted), 2024
Abstract
We evaluate two interventions targeting young women in Nairobi, Kenya. The first is a multifaceted program involving vocational training, in-kind transfers of physical capital, and ongoing mentoring. The second is an unrestricted cash grant. Both interventions shift women into self-employment, and impacts persist after six years. Both programs also increase income in the short-term, but those effects disappear over time. Though the two treatments have similar impacts on labor market outcomes, women in the multifaceted program report significantly higher wellbeing six years after treatment relative to both women in the control group and those who received the grants.
Other versions
Recent pre-print version: CGD Working Paper 646, May 2023
Previous version appears as World Bank WPS 7977, February 2017; (Also available from SSRN.) (Also appears as IZA Discussion Paper 10583.)
Joint with Andrew Brudevold-Newman, Maddalena Honorati, Gerald Ipapa, and Pamela Jakiela
Data
Data and analysis files: (hosted at the Harvard Dataverse)
Policy briefs
2017 PEDL Research Note: Estimating the Impacts of Microfranchising on Young Women in Nairobi
PEDL Pilot Study Research Note
Media
Featured in World Bank DECRG April 2017 Research Highlights
November 2012 Blog Post at All About Finance: Microfranchising in Nairobi hits the BBC
Other information
JEL codes: J24, M53, O12
Trial Registry AEARCTR-0000459