Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 357, Issue 6357, Pages 1287-1289Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aan5329
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Funding
- IZA-Institute of Labor Economics
- Women's Leadership in Small and Medium Enterprises trust fund
- Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality
- World Bank's Africa Gender Innovation Lab and Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice
- Innovations for Poverty Action
- Ministry of Commerce and of Private Sector Promotion of Togo
- Project Coordination Unit of the Private Sector Development Support Project
- WAGES (Women and Associations for Gain both Economic and Social)
- FUCEC (Faitiere des Unites Cooperatives d'Epargne et de Credit du Togo)
- CECA (Cooperative d'Epargne et de Credit des Artisans)
- APROMA (Action pour la Promotion du Monde Artisanal)
- DOSI (Delegation a l'Organisation du Secteur Informel)
- AFCET (Association des Femmes Chefs d'Entreprise du Togo)
- CRM-Lome (Chambre Regionale de Metiers)
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Standard business training programs aim to boost the incomes of themillions of self-employed business owners in developing countries by teaching basic financial and marketing practices, yet the impacts of such programs are mixed. We tested whether a psychology-based personal initiative training approach, which teaches a proactive mindset and focuses on entrepreneurial behaviors, could have more success. A randomized controlled trial in Togo assigned microenterprise owners to a control group (n = 500), a leading business training program (n = 500), or a personal initiative training program (n = 500). Four follow-up surveys tracked outcomes for firms over 2 years and showed that personal initiative training increased firm profits by 30%, compared with a statistically insignificant 11% for traditional training. The training is cost-effective, paying for itself within 1 year.
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