DOI: 10.3886/e119063v1-107880
title: Replication Data for: Growing Markets through Business Training for Female Entrepreneurs: A Market-Level Randomized Experiment in Kenya

description: A common concern with efforts to directly help some small businesses to grow is that their growth comes at the expense of their unassisted competitors. We test this possibility using a two-stage randomized experiment in Kenya which randomizes business training at the market level, and then within markets to selected businesses. Three years after training, the treated businesses are selling more, earn higher profits, and their owners have higher well-being. Point estimates of the spillovers on the competing businesses are small and not statistically significant, and the markets as a whole have grown in terms of sales volume.<br><br>This archive contains the original survey data, and Stata replication code needed to reproduce this paper.
description: No weights are used.
description: Response Rates: Four rounds of follow-up surveys were conducted, in order to measure outcomes approximately one year and three years after training occurred (see timeline Appendix 1). Two types of surveys were used. A comprehensive long-form survey collecting data on a wide range of business outcomes was used in rounds 2 and 4. These were supplemented by much shorter surveys in rounds 3 and 5. These short surveys were conducted two or three months after the long surveys, and were intended to provide a second observation on volatile business outcomes like sales and profits, as well as an additional opportunity to gather data from individuals who could not be found at the time of the long survey rounds.<br><br>Appendix 7 details response rates. Overall we were able to interview 95.0 percent of the sample in at least one of round 2 or 3, and 92.3 percent in at least one of round 4 or 5. In addition, in cases where we were unable to interview someone due to refusal, travel, death, or other reasons, we collected information from other household members or close contacts on whether the individual in our sample was currently operating a business. This enables us to have data on survival status for 99.3 percent of the sample at one year, and 97.2 percent at three years.
description: Presence of Common Scales: The data appendix to the paper describes all scales used.
description: Altogether 6,296 female-owned businesses in 161 markets were listed. After the census, three markets in Kakamega county were dropped because the number of women in these markets was too few. We then applied an eligibility filter to determine which women to include in the baseline survey. This filter required the women to have reported profits, and not to have reported profits that exceeded sales; to have a phone number that could be used to invite them for training; to be 55 years or younger in age; to not be running a business that only dealt with phone cards or m-pesa, or that was a school; that the person responding not be an employee; that the business not have more than 3 employees; that the business have profits in the past week between 0 and 4000 KSH; that sales in the past week be less than or equal to 50,000 KSH; and that the individual had at least one year of schooling. These criteria were chosen to reduce the amount of heterogeneity in the sample (thereby increasing our ability to detect treatment effects), and to increase the odds of being able to contact and find individuals again. Applying this eligibility filter reduced the 6,296 individuals to 4,037 individuals (64%). Baseline surveys took place soon after the listing surveys in each county, between June and November 2013. Out of a target of 4,037 individuals, we were able to interview 3,537 (87.6%) in time to consider them for inviting to training.
description: Females running small businesses in four regions of Kenya: Kakamega and Kisii in the Western region, and Embu and Kitui in the Eastern region. Smallest Geographic Unit: market
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI); computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI); face-to-face interview; Section 2 and Appendix 2 of the research paper provide more details on the survey methodology.