Mentors or Teachers? Microenterprise Training in Kenya

Wyatt Brooks (), Kevin Donovan and Terence R. Johnson

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2018, vol. 10, issue 4, 196-221

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.

JEL-codes: D83 J16 L25 L26 O14 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.20170042
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (63)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20170042 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... S2MiKYRy7NGMrqp9j8ih (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... vgE_kU1mkgJLa9b4Gi0v (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:196-221

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is currently edited by Alexandre Mas

More articles in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().