Study Overview
- Title:
- Evaluation of a Nationwide Business Plan competition
- Study is 3ie funded:
- No
- Study ID:
- RIDIE-STUDY-ID-52559be5a72eb
- Initial Registration Date:
- 10/09/2013
- Last Update Date:
- 07/24/2018
- Study Status:
- CompletedChange History for Status
Changed On Previous Value 07/24/2018 Ongoing
- Location(s):
- Nigeria
- Abstract:
The program being evaluated is a business plan competition for young entrepreneurs in a large African country. It has the stated objective of encouraging innovation and job creation through the creation of new businesses and expansion of existing businesses. The program provides a four-day training course on preparation of a business plan to applicants who make it through a first stage, and then grants to winners selected in this second phase. The goal of this evaluation is to measure the impact of winning this program on business performance, including job growth, profitability, and capital accumulation. A mixture of experimental and non-experimental evaluation methods will be used.
- Registration Citation:
McKenzie, D., 2013. Evaluation of a Nationwide Business Plan competition. Registry for International Development for Impact Evaluations (RIDIE). Available at: 10.23846/ridie009
- Categories:
- Private Sector Development
- Additional Keywords:
- Secondary ID Number(s):
- AEA RCT Registry AEARCTR-0000078; Pre-analysis plan registered with J-PAL Hypothesis registry on 14 November, 2012.
Principal Investigator(s)
- Name of First PI:
- David McKenzie
- Affiliation:
- World Bank
- Name of Second PI:
- Affiliation:
Study Sponsor
- Name:
- DFID
- Study Sponsor Location:
- United Kingdom
Research Partner
- Name of Partner Institution:
- DFID's Project Development Facility (PDF)
- Type of Organization:
- NGO-international
- Location:
- Nigeria
Intervention Overview
- Intervention:
The program provides a four-day training course on preparation of a business plan to applicants who make it through a first stage, and then grants to winners selected in this second phase.
- Private Intervention Details:
Details are in pre-analysis plan
- Theory of Change:
- Multiple Treatment Arms Evaluated?
- Yes
Implementing Agency
- Name of Organization:
- Ministry of Finance, Government of Nigeria
- Type of Organization:
- Public Sector, e.g. Government Agency or Ministry
Program Funder
- Name of Organization:
- Ministry of Finance, Government of Nigeria
- Type of Organization:
- Public Sector, e.g. Government Agency or Ministry
Intervention Timing
- Intervention or Program Started at time of Registration?
- Yes
- Start Date:
- 12/01/2011
- End Date:
- 12/01/2013
Evaluation Method Overview
- Primary (or First) Evaluation Method:
- Randomized control trial
- Other (not Listed) Method:
- Additional Evaluation Method (If Any):
- Regression discontinuity
- Other (not Listed) Method:
Method Details
- Details of Evaluation Approach:
A Randomized Experiment is used to measure the impact of winning the grant; a Regression Discontinuity is used to measure the impact of the initial training. More Details are provided in pre-analysis plan
- Private Details of Evaluation Approach:
Details are provided in pre-analysis plan
- Outcomes (Endpoints):
Employment, Profitability, Sales
- Unit of Analysis:
- Individual applicant
- Hypotheses:
Details in pre-analysis plan
- Unit of Intervention or Assignment:
- Individual applicants
- Number of Clusters in Sample:
- Number of Individuals in Sample:
- 3139 applicants
- Size of Treatment, Control, or Comparison Subsamples:
- 729 treated, 1112 control (RCT); Also various RD samples as in pre-analysis plan
Supplementary Files
- Analysis Plan:
- McKenzie_preanalysisplan_Sept23.pdf
- Other Documents:
Outcomes Data
- Description:
- Follow-up surveys of Firms
- Data Already Collected?
- Yes
- Data Previously Used?
- Yes
- Data Access:
- Restricted -- Access requires a formal approval process
- Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?
- Data Approval Process:
- Data from ongoing evaluation surveys, will be made public once study is completed. Note that an additional survey round has yet to be completed.
- Approval Status:
- Yes-obtained approval and have received the data
Treatment Assignment Data
- Participation or Assignment Information:
- Yes
- Description:
- Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?
- Data Previously Used?
- Data Access:
- Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?
- Data Approval Process:
- Approval Status:
Data Analysis
- Data Analysis Status:
- Yes
Study Materials
- Upload Study Materials:
Registration Category
- Registration Category:
- Non-Prospective, Category 4: Data for measuring impacts have been obtained/collected by the research team and analysis for this evaluation has started
Completion Overview
- Intervention Completion Date:
- 01/31/2014
- Data Collection Completion Date:
- 11/30/2016
- Unit of Analysis:
- Firm
- Clusters in Final Sample:
- Individual level randomization
- Total Observations in Final Sample:
- 1841 firms, surveyed in four follow-up rounds.
- Size of Treatment, Control, or Comparison Subsamples:
- 729 treatment, 1112 control
Findings
- Preliminary Report:
- Yes
- Preliminary Report URL:
- https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9C9RwWKZrUNdzhGSm81UDFCMG8
- Summary of Findings:
Almost all firms in developing countries have fewer than 10 workers, with a modal size of one. Are there potential high-growth entrepreneurs, and can public policy help identify them and facilitate their growth? A large-scale national business plan competition in Nigeria provides evidence on these questions. Random assignment of US$34 million in grants provided each winner with approximately US$50,000. Surveys tracking applicants over five years show that winning leads to greater firm entry, more survival, higher profits and sales, and higher employment, including increases of over 20 percentage points in the likelihood of a firm having 10 or more workers.
- Paper:
- Yes
- Paper Summary:
McKenzie, David (2017) Identifying and Spurring High-Growth Entrepreneurship: Experimental Evidence from a Business Plan Competition, American Economic Review, 107(8): 2278-2307 McKenzie, David (forthcoming) "Can business owners form accurate counterfactuals? Eliciting treatment and control beliefs about their outcomes in the alternative treatment status", Journal of Business & Economic Statistics
- Paper Citation:
- see above
Data Availability
- Data Availability (Primary Data):
- Yes--Available now
- Date of Data Availability:
- Data URL or Contact:
- http://microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/2329
- Access procedure:
- Public use dataset through the World Bank's open data library
Other Materials
- Survey:
- Yes
- Survey Instrument Links or Contact:
- http://microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/2329
- Program Files:
- Yes
- Program Files Links or Contact:
- http://microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/2329
- External Link:
- http://voxdev.org/topic/firms-trade/generating-smes-through-business-plan-competition-nigeria
- External Link Description:
- Description of Changes:
See AER paper for discussion
Study Stopped
- Date:
- Reason: