No Longer Trapped? Promoting Entrepreneurship Through Cash Transfers to Ultra-Poor Women in Northern Kenya

Vilas J. Gobin, Paulo Santos and Russell Toth

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2017, vol. 99, issue 5, 1362-1383

Abstract: We examine the short-to-medium-run impacts of the Rural Entrepreneur Access Program, a poverty graduation program that promotes entrepreneurship among ultra-poor women in arid and semi-arid northern Kenya, a context prone to poverty traps. The program relies on cash transfers (rather than asset transfers) in addition to business skills training, business mentoring, and savings. Participation in each of the program’s three rounds was randomly determined through a public lottery. In the short-to-medium-run, we find that the program has a positive and significant impact on income, savings, and asset accumulation, similar to more traditional poverty graduation programs that rely on asset transfers.

Keywords: Cash transfers; entrepreneurship; field experiment; microenterprise; poverty graduation; ultra-poor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D13 J24 O12 O13 Q12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:ajagec:v:99:y:2017:i:5:p:1362-1383.

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