The Effect of Early Entrepreneurship Education: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

Laura Rosendahl Huber (), Randolph Sloof and Mirjam Praag
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Laura Rosendahl Huber: University of Amsterdam

No 6512, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The aim of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of early entrepreneurship education. To this end, we conduct a randomized field experiment to evaluate a leading entrepreneurship education program that is taught worldwide in the final grade of primary school. We focus on pupils' development of relevant skill sets for entrepreneurial activity, both cognitive and non-cognitive. The results indicate that cognitive entrepreneurial skills are unaffected by the program. However, the program has a robust positive effect on non-cognitive entrepreneurial skills. This is surprising since previous evaluations found zero or negative effects. Because these earlier studies all pertain to education for adolescents, our result tentatively suggests that non-cognitive entrepreneurial skills are best developed at an early age.

Keywords: entrepreneurship education; field experiment; skill formation; entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 I21 J24 L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2012-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-edu, nep-ent, nep-exp, nep-hrm, nep-lab and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Published - published in: European Economic Review, 2014, 72, 76-97

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Working Paper: The Effect of Early Entrepreneurship Education: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment (2012)
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