Money or Ideas? A Field Experiment on Constraints to Entrepreneurship in Rural Pakistan

By Xavier Gine and Ghazala Mansuri

Comments by Elena Bardasi,March 30, 2011

Policy questionsIs the intervention worth replicating/scaling-up?1. Does the intervention have an impact?2. What explains the impact (or lack of impact)?– Selection issues – targeting– Implementation issues– Sources of the impact

3. Cost effectiveness

Randomization, selection, and targeting Treatment and control equally made of:

½ COs male

(a) 747 COs randomization ½ COs female

ORIENTATION SESSION 61% of individuals (a) / 90% of businessesfor 55% eligible for loans (2284) (4162 / 2532)

Special meeting to conduct (b) BASELINE SURVEY

BT offered No BT offered

Total 2080 Total 2080

Trained 1252

Interested in training?

Yes (about 2600) no

trained not trained

L offered L not offered

Total 1142 Total 1142

Take-up 211

Willing to apply?

No Yes (713)

obtained not obtained

Randomization?

Definition of the ‘treatment’ and implementation issues

• Does same treatment imply same implementation modalities? – Is a pair of male and female trainers the same treatment

for men and women?– Do different sectors require the same business training?

• What is training?

Sources of the impacts

• Exploring heterogeneity• What is the effect of the combination of

business training and education?• Interaction with agricultural activities (50% of

men have a agribusiness vs. only 20% of women)

Gender effects

• Gender dimensions:– Household level analysis. To what extent do

women actually manage their loans? (What do their husband do? Do they have enterprises?)

– Do women need “more intensive interventions”?• Lower opportunity costs• What do women need to increase their sales?