and 40.9 percent had given birth. The median number of years of schooling in the sample is 10; 92.4 percent of baseline respondents finished primary school, while only 41.1 percent finished secondary school.<sup>11</sup> 34.5 percent had done some form of vocational training prior to the program.

Only 14.6 percent of the sample was engaged in an income-generating activity (IGA) at the time of the baseline survey, but 54.6 percent had been involved in an IGA at some point in the past. 23.2 percent had been self-employed at some point in the past. The young women in the sample spent a considerable amount of time doing unpaid work at home: the median number of hours of unpaid housework (in the week prior to the baseline) was 21. Only 8.8 percent of women in the sample had a bank account at baseline, and only a third had any savings in money or jewelry. Among those with savings, the median amount of savings was (equivalent to) 8.91 US dollars.

Balance checks (i.e. tests of the hypothesis that observable characteristics are balanced across treatments) are reported in the Online Appendix. Observable characteristics were relatively balanced prior to the program. Out of 75 hypothesis tests, we find 3 differences across treatments that are significant at greater than 95 percent statistical confidence.<sup>12</sup>

# **3.4 Compliance with Treatment**

As is typical in training programs (McKenzie and Woodruff 2014), not all the women assigned to the program participated in it, and not all those who started the business training completed the program. Table 2 reports the proportion of women in the treatment and control groups who completed each stage of the program.<sup>13</sup> 61 percent of those assigned to the franchise treatment attended the initial two-week business training course at least once; 39 percent of those assigned to the franchise treatment completed the franchise-specific business training and launched a microfranchise. Though these modest take-up rates are not out of line with those observed in comparable training programs (McKenzie and Woodruff 2014), they have important ramifications for the interpretation of intent-to-treat estimates of program impacts (a point we return to below). Unsurprisingly, the take-up rate is 11The average level of education among women aged 18-20 in Nairobi is 10.6 years; 28 percent are currently married or living with a partner, and 26 percent have had a child (Kenya DHS 2014). Thus, relative to the general population of comparably-age women in Nairobi, our sample is slightly less educated, less likely to be married or cohabitating, and more likely to have had a child. These differences likely reflect the program’s focus on Nairobi’s poorest neighborhoods.

> 12Women assigned to the control group come from slightly larger households, and are somewhat more likely to have given birth prior to the program. Women assigned to the cash grant treatment had, on average, about half a year less schooling than those assigned to the franchise treatment and the control group. Controls for those variables that are not balanced across treatments are included in our main specifications (though results are nearly identical when controls are omitted).

> 13The table is based on administrative data from the implementing NGO and the franchise partners, though self-reports line up with administrative records.

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