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Mentors or Teachers? Microenterprise Training in Kenya

  • Wyatt Brooks
  • Kevin Donovan
  • Terence R. Johnson
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 10, no. 4, October 2018
(pp. 196-221)
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Abstract

We use a randomized controlled trial to demonstrate that inexperienced female microenterprise owners in a Kenyan slum benefit from mentorship by an experienced entrepreneur in the same community. Mentorship increases profits by 20 percent on average with initially large effects that fade as matches dissolve. We conduct a formal business education intervention, which has no effect on profits despite changes in business practice. Our results demonstrate that missing information is a salient barrier to profitability, but the type of information matters: access to the localized, specific knowledge of mentors increases profit while abstract, general information from the class does not.

Citation

Brooks, Wyatt, Kevin Donovan, and Terence R. Johnson. 2018. "Mentors or Teachers? Microenterprise Training in Kenya." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 10 (4): 196-221. DOI: 10.1257/app.20170042

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • L25 Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and Scope
  • L26 Entrepreneurship
  • O14 Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
  • O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
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