Participating or Not? Characteristics of Female Entrepreneurs Participating in and Completing an Entrepreneurial Training Program

摘要

A growing body of literature suggests that "managerial capital" or "entrepreneurial skills" are a crucial driver of firms' performance (Bruhn, Karlan, and Schoar 2010; McKenzie and Woodruff 2017; Bloom et al. 2010; Bloom et al. 2013). However, despite some recent promising approaches (Campos et al. 2017; Anderson-Macdonald et al. 2014), finding an effective and efficient manner to transfer these skills is unclear as shown by the mixed results of various business training programs, especially for female entrepreneurs (McKenzie and Woodruff 2014). Mixed results of these training programs usually are explained either by the typical low take-up or poor attendance which significantlyreduces the power of the evaluations, and limits importantly the effectiveness of these programs. McKenzie and Woodruff (2014) show that the average participation rate among different experiments that evaluate business training programs around the world is about 65 percent. Although this is a generalized problem, there is relatively little literature analyzing the low take-up rates of business literacy programs. Calderon, Cunha, and De Giorgi (2013) provide suggestive evidence that the treatment effectiveness increases with baseline performance, which suggests that not all entrepreneurs have the ability to increase their profits, but did not analyze the relation between performance and take-up rates. Bruhn, Ibarra, and McKenzie (2013) analyzed low take-up rates for financial education courses in Mexico and found that one of the reasons is low perceived benefits. However, these types of analyses for entrepreneurial training programs have not been done yet. Therefore, identifying the characteristics associated with take-up and completion of these types of programs is of utmost importance for designing effective policies to improve business performance, as well as allow their evaluation. In this paper, we analyze how those women entrepreneurs that did complete the training differ from those that got an offer to receive training but decided not to participate, or dropped off before completing it.