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Can Basic Entrepreneurship Transform the Economic Lives of the Poor?

Author

Listed:
  • Oriana Bandiera
  • Robin Burgess
  • Narayan Das
  • Selim Gulesci
  • Imran Rasul
  • Munshi Sulaiman

Abstract

A new version of this paper has been published on August 2015 (Paper No EOPP 58). The world's poorest people lack capital and skills and toil for others in occupations that others shun. Using a large-scale and long-term randomized control trial in Bangladesh this paper demonstrates that sizable transfers of assets and skills enable the poorest women to shift out of agricultural labor and into running small businesses. This shift, which persists and strengthens after assistance is withdrawn, leads to a 38% increase in earnings. Inculcating basic entrepreneurship, where severely disadvantaged women take on occupations which were the preserve of non-poor women, is shown to be a powerful means of transforming the economic lives of the poor.

Suggested Citation

  • Oriana Bandiera & Robin Burgess & Narayan Das & Selim Gulesci & Imran Rasul & Munshi Sulaiman, 2013. "Can Basic Entrepreneurship Transform the Economic Lives of the Poor?," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 043, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:stieop:043
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    asset transfers; capital constraints; vocational training; occupational choice; structural change; poverty.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • D50 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - General

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