“Bardasi, Elena; Gassier, Marine; Goldstein, Markus; Holla, Alaka. 2017. The Profits of Wisdom : The Impacts of a Business Support Program in Tanzania. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8279. World Bank, Washington, DC. © World Bank.
Abstract
Business training programs in low-income settings have shown limited, if any, impacts on firm revenues and prof- its, particularly for female entrepreneurs. This paper uses a randomized design to compare the impacts of two types of business training programs targeting women with estab- lished small businesses in urban Tanzania. The basic version of the training relied on in- class sessions to strengthen the managerial and technical skills of the participants. In the enhanced version, training was supplemented by individual visits from business coaches to the sites of participants’ activities, as well as other services tailored to their individual needs. The study finds no impact of the basic training on business practices and business outcomes. Participants in the enhanced training are more likely to adopt new prac- tices, but show no effects for revenue or profits, on average. However, the average masks large heterogeneous effects: entrepreneurs with low levels of experience show reduced revenues; those with more experience benefit from the pro- gram. This finding suggests that business training programs may have greater impacts if they are more carefully targeted.
Emily Nix, Elisa Gamberoni, Rachel Heath.Bridging the Gender Gap: Identifying What Is Holding Self-employed Women Back in Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Republic of Congo, The World Bank Economic Review, Volume 30, Issue 3, October 2016, Pages 501-521.
Abstract
Quantile decomposition methods are used to study the determinants of the gender gap in self-employment earnings across the earnings distribution of four Sub-Saharan countries: the Republic of Congo, Ghana, Rwanda, and Tanzania. Techniques developed by Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2007) are used to decompose the gap into a compositional effect (the part of the earnings gap that can be explained by observable factors) and a structural effect (the part of the gap that can be explained by returns to those factors, suggestive of discrimination) at various quantiles of the income distribution. While, in all countries and all points of the wage distribution, compositional effects help explain gender gaps in self-employment earnings, the majority of the wage gap is due to structural effects (with the exception of low-income earners in the Republic of Congo). Still, the relative importance of specific compositional factors and the specific contribution of structural factors varies across countries and at different points of the income distribution within countries. There is some evidence of a glass-ceiling effect in the Republic of Congo and Tanzania but not in Ghana and Rwanda. These results suggest that discrimination is influenced by local conditions and that there is no single model of earnings gaps that can explain gender gaps in earning in sub-Saharan Africa.
