Year: 2021
Type: report
Abstract: We study the medium-term impacts of the Skills for Effective Entrepreneurship Development (SEED) program, an innovative in-residence 3-week mini-MBA program for high school students modeled after western business school curricula and adapted to the Ugandan context.The program featured two separate treatments: the hard-skills MBA features a mix of approximately 75% hard skills and 25% soft skills; the soft skills curriculum has the reverse mix.Using data on 4400 youth from a nationally representative sample in a 3-arm field experiment in Uganda, the 3.5 year follow-up demonstrated that training was effective in improving both hard and soft skills, but only soft skills were directly linked to improvements in self-efficacy, persuasion, and negotiation.The skill upgrade was rewarded in substantially higher earnings; 32.1% and 29.8% increases in earnings for those who attended hard-and soft-training, respectively, most of which, was generated through self-mployment.Furthermore, youth in both groups were more likely to start enterprises and more successful in ensuring their businesses' survival.The program led to significantly larger profits (24.2% and 27.2% for hard-and soft-treatment arms respectively) and larger business capital investments (38.4% and 32.6% for SEED hard and SEED soft, respectively).Both SEED curricula were very cost-effective; two months worth of the extra earnings caused by the training alone would exceed the cost of the program.These benefits abstract from the job-and business-creation benefits of the program, which were substantial: relative to the control group, SEED entrepreneurs created 985 additional jobs and 550 new businesses.
DOI: 10.3386/w28845
Language: English
Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3165450817