IGL database (beta)
Year | Title | Short summary | Country | Author | |
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2015 | The Impact of Enhanced Business Training for High-Potential Entrepreneurs in Colombia |
This experiment in Colombia will test the impact of a business training programme. Results forthcoming. |
Colombia | Schoar, A. | |
2015 | Rethinking Innovation Spaces |
How do different types of proximity impact collaboration and knowledge generation? How should we design research campuses to maximize the probability of breakthrough innovation taking place? Although information and communication technology has substantially lowered the cost of remote interactions, physical space and geographic proximity still play a major role in inventive activity. This project will explore how a research-intensive academic campus should be designed to increase the probability of breakthrough innovations taking place. |
Ganguli, I., Catalini, C. | | |
2015 | Returns to Consulting for SMEs |
A business skills training intervention for SME owners and managers in metro Manila, the Philippines. Results forthcoming. |
Philippines | Fischer, G., Karlan, D. | |
2015 | Attracting Early Stage Investors: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment |
By randomising the information sent to potential investors on AngelList over e-mail, this experiment finds evidence that the founding team of a startup has strong influence over the investor's decision to invest. |
US | Bernstein, S., Korteweg, A., Laws, K. | |
2015 | The Impact of Flexible Credit for Entrepreneurs in Colombia |
The income flows of micro and small business owners in developing countries are usually quite irregular and hard to predict. Microloans by microfinance institutions (MFIs) from around the developing world generally follow very rigid repayment schedules beginning immediately after the loan disbursement. Such repayment structures are unfit to support investments in technology or other solutions to expand the business, as these generally take longer to pay off. |
Colombia | Karlan, D., Brune, L., Giné, X. | |
2015 | "Open" Disclosure of Innovations, Incentives and Follow-on Reuse: Theory on Processes of Cumulative Innovation and a Field Experiment in Computational Biology |
In the context of an online software development tournament, intermediate disclosure policy increased information and signaling in |
Boudreau, K., Lakhani, K. | | |
2015 | High Incentives, Sorting on Skills -- Or just a Taste for Competition? Field Experimental Evidence from an Algorithm Design Contest |
Workers who sort into institutional settings they prefer may work twice (or many more times) as hard in these preferred settings. This productivity effect is especially important in institutional settings where a taste for competition is strongest. |
US | Boudreau, K., Lakhani, K. | |
2015 | A Randomised Control Trial to Identify the Effect of Tech Incubators on Startups |
Working with one of the largest tech incubators in the UK, this trial will deploy a multi-site RCT in two different cities. After pre-selection, entry into the incubator will be randomised for 100 firms per site. The experiment will then explore post-treatment outcomes including survival, recombination, and changes in post-treatment revenue, employment and level of external finance raised. |
Nathan, M., Overman, H., Olmo, S. | | |
2015 | Self-Accelerated Startups: Design and Evaluation of a modified SHG Scheme to Foster an Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in India |
This RCT will pilot Self-Accelerated Startups (SAS), a new peer-selection based entrepreneurship support model for idea-stage companies and student startups that uses collective bootstrapping on the lines of self-help groups in the social sector. In this model, prospective entrepreneurs meet regularly in groups for a pre-defined mentorship period and make small monthly contributions to a “seed fund”. At the end of this phase, the self-mobilized corpus is awarded as startup capital to one or two members by the rest of the peer group in return for equity in these startups. |
India | Kesavan, S., Rout, S. | |
2015 | The Impact of Credit-scoring on SME Lending and Performance in the Philippines |
A loan programme for SMEs in the Philippines. Results forthcoming. |
Philippines | Byran, G., Jakiela, P., Karlan, D. | |
2015 | How Do Nascent Social Entrepreneurs Respond to Rewards? A Field Experiment on Motivations in a Grant Competition |
We conducted a field experiment to identify the causal effects of extrinsic incentive cues on the sorting and performance of nascent social entrepreneurs. The experiment, carried out with one of the United Kingdom’s largest support agencies for social entrepreneurs, encouraged 431 nascent social entrepreneurs to submit a full application for a grant competition that provides cash and in-kind mentorship support through a onetime mailing sent by the agency. |
UK | Ganguli, I., Huysentruyt, M., Le Coq, C. | |
2015 | Assessing the Effectiveness of Entrepreneurship Education: A Randomized Control Trial |
Many resources, such as business acumen are thought to feed into entrepreneurial success. However, an open question is whether the tools and frameworks available to nascent startups are causally related to their successes in the areas of financing, employment and revenue growth, valuations, etc. In this study, we use a large-scale RCT to assess the impact of entrepreneurship skills training on startup decisions and outcomes across the U.S. In the study, startups associated co-working spaces are offered payment to complete a series of surveys tracking their outcomes over two years. |
US | Lee, D., Fehder, D., Hochberg, Y., Floyd, E. J. | |
2015 | Training and Consulting Services for Managers: Experimental Evidence from Bangladeshi Garment Production Lines |
Evaluation of a training and consulting program for managerial staff in Bangladeshi garment factories to understand how new management practices are adopted and implemented and what determines their success. |
Bangladesh | Macchiavello, R., Woodruff, C.., Akerlof, R. | |
2015 | The Impact of Providing Loans to SMEs on Firm Performance in China |
While small and medium enterprises (SMEs) represent a large segment of activity and employment, there has been little research on how their growth is affected by financial constraints. Indeed, because the credit needs of SMEs are too big for microfinance products, but that they lack the collateral to borrow from the traditional banking sector, SMEs are in some way the “missing middle” of credit constraint research. This project addresses this evidence gap by evaluating the impact of a new loan product, designed specifically for SMEs, on firm growth and other market outcomes. |
China | Cai, J., Szeidl, A. | |
2015 | What are the Effects of Improving Management Practices on Exporting among SMEs in Middle-Income Countries? A Comparison of Bayesian and Frequentist Impact Evaluation Approaches |
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McKenzie, D., Meager, R., Iacovone, L., Rodríguez Pérez, D. | | |
2015 | Self-Control at Work |
Self-control problems change the logic of agency theory by partly aligning the interests of the firm and worker: both now value contracts that elicit future effort. Findings from a year-long field experiment with full-time data entry workers support this idea. First, workers increase output by voluntarily choosing dominated contracts (which penalize low output but give no additional rewards for high output). Second, effort increases closer to (randomly assigned) paydays. |
Kaur, S., Kremer, M., Mullainathan, S. | | |
2015 | Behind the GATE Experiment: Evidence on Effects of and Rationales for Subsidized Enterpreneurship Training |
Is the GATE Programme/Entrepreneurship training a valid response to various forms of market failure (allocative inefficiency in credit, labour, insurance and human capital markets)? Can such a programme have an effect on business sales, earnings or employees? |
US | Fairlie, R.W., Karlan, D., Zinman, J. | |
2015 | The Effects of Innovation Vouchers on Innovation Activity and Performance of SMEs in the UK |
The Innovation Voucher Program analyzed in this study operates as a randomized controlled trial (RCT). This allows estimating the causal effect of the voucher on innovation and growth measures of beneficiaries, as well as their business outcomes in general. As a result, the evidence might be used to enhance voucher schemes and to provide further policy advice on how to effectively support small and medium-sized enterprises and their innovation activities in the future. |
UK | Heite, J., Rosendahl Huber L., Kleine, M. | |
2015 | Testing a 3rd Party Contract Enforcement Solution in a Peruvian Textile Cluster |
An online platform for contract enforcement in the Peruvian textile sector. Results forthcoming. |
Peru | Bird, M. | |
2015 | An Internship Programme for Young Ethiopian Entrepreneurs |
Can internship programmes provide young entrepreneurs with valuable experiential learning on successful management practices? This pilot study confirms the viability of such a programme in promoting 'learning by doing', and builds the foundation for a full-scale internship experiment beginning in 2015. For a non-technical summary, please click here. |
Abebe, G., Fafchamps, M., Koelle, M., Quinn, S. | | |
2015 | Does Winning a Patent Race Lead to More Follow-On Innovation? |
Competition between firms to invent and patent an idea, or “patent racing,” has been much discussed in theory, but seldom analyzed empirically. This article introduces an empirical way to identify patent races, and provides the first broad-based view of them in the real world. It reveals that patent races are common, particularly in information-technology fields. The analysis is then extended to get the causal impact of winning a patent race, using a regression-discontinuity approach. |
Kuhn, J.M., Thompson, N. | | |
2015 | Groupements de Createurs: Encouraging Youth Entrepreneurship in France |
Youth entrepreneurship training programme in France. Results forthcoming. |
France | Algan, Y., Ceci-Renaud, N., Crépon, B., Huillery, E., Parienté, W. | |
2015 | Entrepreneurship Education in Uganda: A Randomized Control Trial |
This study aims to carry out an evaluation of the long-term impacts of an innovative school-based intervention designed to enhance the ability of youth to engage and succeed in both formal employment and entrepreneurial activities in Uganda, ultimately leading to improvements in livelihood. The findings will inform future interventions (in Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya) to help more young people overcome obstacles to successful entrepreneurship and labor market participation, such as gender-related barriers, thereby improving their livelihoods and socioeconomic security. |
Uganda | Gertler, P. | |
2015 | Upgrading Management Technology in Colombia |
Examines the differential impacts of group management consulting versus individualised management consulting on firm performace in Colombia, and whether management practices are partially responsible for the gap in firm productivity in developing countries. Results forthcoming. |
Colombia | McKenzie, D., Maloney, W., Iacovone, L. | |
2015 | The Additionality Impact of a Matching Grant Program for Small Firms - Experimental Evidence from Yemen |
Matching grants are one of the most common types of private sector development programs used in developing countries. But government subsidies to private firms can be controversial. A key question is that of additionality: do these programs get firms to undertake innovative activities that they would not otherwise do, or merely subsidize activities that would take place anyway? Randomized controlled trials can provide the counterfactual needed to answer this question, but efforts to experiment with matching grant programs have often failed. |
Assaf, N., Cusolito, A.P., McKenzie, D. | | |
2015 | The Impact of Secured Transactions Reform on Access to Capital for Small and Medium Enterprises in Colombia |
In the context of SME's in Colombia, researchers are evaluating the impact on firm performance of a legal reform which will provide a framework for the use and enforcement of movable collateral. Results forthcoming. |
Colombia | Schoar, A., Eslava, M. | |
2015 | Research as Leisure: Experimental Evidence on Voluntary Contributions to Science |
Organizations that depend on voluntary contributions face unique managerial challenges. In this project, we examine whether emphasizing the salience of project output (i.e., project outcome) or project input (i.e., labor costs) affect the quantity and quality of contributions using a randomized field experiment on the world's largest crowd science platform. We manipulate whether participants receive information that emphasizes their contribution to the eventual outcome of a task or information that emphasizes their contribution to the labor required for a task. |
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2015 | Growth Impact Pilot |
The Growth Impact Pilot, launched in April 2014, is a research project on the impact of business advice (coaching), supported by the UK Government. The Growth Impact Pilot will assess whether the provision of Growth Accelerator coaching is the reason why firms on the service achieve high rates of growth, or whether this growth would have happened anyway. It is designed to assess the impact of coaching by comparing two groups: |
UK | Phipps, J., Watkins, G., Johnson, A., Khan, K. | |
2015 | The Effect of Personalized Tax Training on Entrepreneurial Performance: Evidence From a Field Experiment. |
This study reports on a randomized field experiment conducted in the Netherlands to estimate the (long-term) effect of a short personalized tax training program on the performance and tax compliance of first-time entrepreneurs. The tax training was expected to have an impact on business performance and different aspects of tax compliance through better financial decision making and more relevant tax knowledge. |
Rosendahl Huber, L. | | |
2015 | Business Training Plus for Female Entrepreneurship? Short and Medium-Term Experimental Evidence from Peru |
With millions of women around the developing world thrown into self-employment but with low productivity, increasing the profitability of their businesses is highly relevant for poverty reduction and gender equity. |
Peru | Valdivia, M. | |