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Are self-employment training programs effective? Evidence from Project GATE

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  • Michaelides, Marios
  • Benus, Jacob

Abstract

This paper presents new evidence on the efficacy of self-employment training programs using data from Project GATE (Growing America Through Entrepreneurship). Project GATE was an experimental design demonstration program that offered free self-employment training to a random sample of individuals who expressed a strong interest in self-employment. Our analyses show that the program was very effective in assisting unemployed participants start their own business, leading to significant gains in self-employment and overall employment in the early months following program participation. These impacts, however, dissipated over time. Despite the program’s impact on the rapid reemployment of unemployed participants, the program did not lead to significant gains in total earnings. Moreover, our analyses provide no evidence that the program was effective for participants who were employed, self-employed, or not in the labor force at the time of application.

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  • Michaelides, Marios & Benus, Jacob, 2010. "Are self-employment training programs effective? Evidence from Project GATE," MPRA Paper 20883, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:20883
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Wim Naudé, 2011. "Foreign Aid for Innovation: The Missing Ingredient in Private Sector Development?," Working Papers 2011/35, Maastricht School of Management.
    2. Busso, Matías & Park, Kyunglin & Irazoque, Nicolás, 2023. "The Effectiveness of Management Training Programs: A Meta-Analytic Review," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12782, Inter-American Development Bank.
    3. Robert W. Fairlie & Dean Karlan & Jonathan Zinman, 2015. "Behind the GATE Experiment: Evidence on Effects of and Rationales for Subsidized Entrepreneurship Training," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 125-161, May.
    4. Elizabeth Weigensberg & Karen Needels & Alix Gould-Werth & Ankita Patnaik & Joanne Lee, "undated". "A Study of the Self-Employment Assistance Program: Helping Unemployed Workers Pursue Self-Employment," Mathematica Policy Research Reports e0f70fd50bbb41abafc03ad42, Mathematica Policy Research.
    5. Dirk Oberschachtsiek & Patrycja Scioch, 2015. "The outcome of coaching and training for self-employment. A statistical evaluation of outside assistance support programs for unemployed business founders in Germany [Die Erfolgswirkung von Gründer," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 48(1), pages 1-25, March.
    6. Lim, Katherine & Michelmore, Katherine, 2018. "The EITC and self-employment among married mothers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 98-115.
    7. Ignacio Moral-Arce & Javier Martín-Román & Ángel L. Martín-Román, 2019. "Cessation of Activity Benefit for Spanish Self-employed Workers: A Heterogeneous Impact Evaluation," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 231(4), pages 41-79, December.
    8. Howard Aldrich & Tiantian Yang, 2014. "How do entrepreneurs know what to do? learning and organizing in new ventures," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 59-82, January.
    9. Elert, Niklas & Andersson, Fredrik W. & Wennberg, Karl, 2015. "The impact of entrepreneurship education in high school on long-term entrepreneurial performance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 209-223.
    10. McGuinness, Seamus & Bergin, Adele & Whelan, Adele, 2016. "An Exploration of (Area-based) Social Inclusion and Community Development Training Programmes in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS54, June.
    11. Michaelides, Marios, 2010. "Race and self-employment: The role of training programs, self-employment background, and access to financing," MPRA Paper 20884, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. L. Behrenz & L. Delander & J. Månsson, 2016. "Is Starting a Business a Sustainable way out of Unemployment? Treatment Effects of the Swedish Start-up Subsidy," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 389-411, December.
    13. Michaelides Marios & Davis Scott, 2020. "From unemployment to self-employment: The role of entrepreneurship training," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-35, March.
    14. McGuinness, Seamus & Bergin, Adele & Whelan, Adele, 2017. "Making centralised data work for community development: an exploration of area-based training programmes in a unified framework," Papers WP555, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    15. Nam Kyoon N. Kim & Simon C. Parker, 0. "Entrepreneurial homeworkers," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-25.
    16. Seamus McGuinness & Adele Bergin & Adele Whelan, 2017. "Using monitoring data to assess community development: Evidence from Ireland," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 32(6), pages 539-564, September.
    17. Nam Kyoon N. Kim & Simon C. Parker, 2021. "Entrepreneurial homeworkers," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1427-1451, October.
    18. Cathy Yang Liu, 2012. "The Causes And Dynamics Of Minority Entrepreneurial Entry," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(01), pages 1-23.
    19. Sebastian Șipoș-Gug, 2012. "Unemployment as a factor of entrepreneurial activity," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 15(46bis), pages 169-186, December.
    20. Marios Michaelides, 2017. "Nascent Entrepreneurship and Race: Evidence from the GATE Experiment," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 02-2017, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    21. Marios Michaelides & Scott Davis, 2016. "From unemployment to self-employment: the role of entrepreneurship training," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 09-2016, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    22. Martin, Bruce C. & McNally, Jeffrey J. & Kay, Michael J., 2013. "Examining the formation of human capital in entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis of entrepreneurship education outcomes," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 211-224.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    self-employment; small business; unemployment; workforce development; SEA; Project GATE;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior

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