Business Plan Competition: The Promotion of Employment and Layoffs in Fragile Areas of Nigeria.

摘要

With the international development community's attention increasingly turning to fragile states, and more specifically promoting employment within them, business plan competitions are becoming more popular. There are limited rigorous evaluations of this type of intervention, especially in fragile areas. A notable exception is McKenzie (2015) who provides a randomized control evaluation of such an intervention in Nigeria. This thesis builds on his work to look specifically at the intervention's effects in the most fragile part of the country -- the Northeast. In the fragile area, the intervention led to short term employment gains as it did elsewhere in Nigeria. However, unlike firms elsewhere in Nigeria, firms in the fragile area lay off about three workers within 12 to 18 months after the program's end. These results have important policy implications for promoting employment in fragile areas, such as the need to possibly subsidize employment over the medium-term to promote stability.