Entrepreneurship Training and Self-Employment among University Graduates : Evidence from a Randomized Trial In Tunisia
In economies characterized by low labor demand and high rates of youth unemployment, entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create their own jobs. This paper presents experimental evidence on a new entreprene...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/12/17028361/ http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12118 |
| Summary: | In economies characterized by low labor
demand and high rates of youth unemployment,
entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth
to gain skills and create their own jobs. This paper
presents experimental evidence on a new entrepreneurship
track that provides business training and personalized
coaching to university students in Tunisia. Undergraduates
in the final year of licence appliquee were given the
opportunity to graduate with a business plan instead of
following the standard curriculum. This paper relies on
randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to
identify impacts on labor market outcomes one year after
graduation. The analysis finds that the entrepreneurship
track was effective in increasing self-employment among
applicants, but that the effects are small in absolute
terms. In addition, the employment rate among participants
remains unchanged, pointing to a partial substitution from
wage employment to self-employment. The evidence shows that
the program fostered business skills, expanded networks, and
affected a range of behavioral skills. Participation in the
entrepreneurship track also heightened graduates optimism
toward the future shortly after the Tunisian revolution. |
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