Teaching Business in Tanzania: Evaluating Participation and Performance

13 Pages Posted: 19 Feb 2010

See all articles by Kjetil Bjorvatn

Kjetil Bjorvatn

Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Bertil Tungodden

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics

Date Written: October 21, 2009

Abstract

There is increased awareness that success among small scale entrepreneurs in developing countries requires more than microfinance, and that an important limiting factor for business growth is the level of human capital among the entrepreneurs. The present paper uses a randomized control trial to evaluate a business training program in Tanzania. Our results show that there is a positive average treatment effect on business knowledge. It also appears that training has a stronger effect on the entrepreneurs with less formal education. Paradoxically, these entrepreneurs are also less consistent in their participation in the training program. An important implication from our study is therefore that when providing business training, special care should be given to ensure high participation rates.

JEL Classification: C93, I21, J24, O12

Suggested Citation

Bjorvatn, Kjetil and Tungodden, Bertil, Teaching Business in Tanzania: Evaluating Participation and Performance (October 21, 2009). NHH Dept. of Economics Discussion Paper No. 15/2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1554899 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1554899

Kjetil Bjorvatn (Contact Author)

Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration ( email )

Helleveien 30
N-5035 Bergen
Norway
47-55 9595 85 (Phone)
47-55 9595 43 (Fax)

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Bertil Tungodden

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics ( email )

Helleveien 30
N-5035 Bergen
Norway

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