IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/11117.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Promoting Innovative Startups : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Tunisia

Author

Listed:
  • Nadia Ali
  • Massimiliano Cali
  • Bob Rijkers

Abstract

This paper evaluates Tunisia’s “Startup Act,” a policy initiative to foster innovative firms through a “start-up” label and a bundle of incentives, including reduced social security contributions, corporate tax exemptions, easier access to foreign exchange, and simplified customs procedures. Detailed data on the program’s selection process allow identifying marginal entrants and rejects, and hence limit selection on unobservables. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, the program is shown to increase survival and promote job creation. A back-of-the-envelope cost-benefit calculation suggests that the program is cost effective.

Suggested Citation

  • Nadia Ali & Massimiliano Cali & Bob Rijkers, 2025. "Promoting Innovative Startups : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Tunisia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11117, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11117
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099742205082536954/pdf/IDU-f937be1c-3934-4c62-a4b8-9cb5261a8808.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lerner, Josh & Schoar, Antoinette & Sokolinski, Stanislav & Wilson, Karen, 2018. "The globalization of angel investments: Evidence across countries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 1-20.
    2. Thomas Hale & Noam Angrist & Rafael Goldszmidt & Beatriz Kira & Anna Petherick & Toby Phillips & Samuel Webster & Emily Cameron-Blake & Laura Hallas & Saptarshi Majumdar & Helen Tatlow, 2021. "A global panel database of pandemic policies (Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker)," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(4), pages 529-538, April.
    3. Laura Chioda & David Contreras-Loya & Paul Gertler & Dana Carney, 2021. "Making Entrepreneurs: Returns to Training Youth in Hard Versus Soft Business Skills," NBER Working Papers 28845, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Eric Verhoogen, 2023. "Firm-Level Upgrading in Developing Countries," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1410-1464, December.
    5. Dingel, Jonathan I. & Neiman, Brent, 2020. "How many jobs can be done at home?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    6. Miriam Bruhn & Dean Karlan & Antoinette Schoar, 2018. "The Impact of Consulting Services on Small and Medium Enterprises: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Mexico," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(2), pages 635-687.
    7. Gottlieb, Charles & Grobovšek, Jan & Poschke, Markus & Saltiel, Fernando, 2021. "Working from home in developing countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    8. Réka Juhász & Nathan Lane & Dani Rodrik, 2024. "The New Economics of Industrial Policy," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 16(1), pages 213-242, August.
    9. Francesco Biancalani & Dirk Czarnitzki & Massimo Riccaboni, 2022. "The Italian Start Up Act: a microeconometric program evaluation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1699-1720, March.
    10. Rijkers, Bob & Arouri, Hassen & Freund, Caroline & Nucifora, Antonio, 2014. "Which firms create the most jobs in developing countries? Evidence from Tunisia," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 84-102.
    11. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2014. "The Life Cycle of Plants in India and Mexico," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(3), pages 1035-1084.
    12. Huttunen, Kristiina & Pirttilä, Jukka & Uusitalo, Roope, 2013. "The employment effects of low-wage subsidies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 49-60.
    13. David McKenzie & Christopher Woodruff, 2014. "What Are We Learning from Business Training and Entrepreneurship Evaluations around the Developing World?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 29(1), pages 48-82.
    14. Daniel Garrote Sanchez & Nicolas Gomez Parra & Caglar Ozden & Bob Rijkers & Mariana Viollaz & Hernan Winkler, 2021. "Who on Earth Can Work from Home? [Secular Stagnation? The Effect of Aging on Economic Growth in the Age of Automation]," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 36(1), pages 67-100.
    15. Santos Silva, J.M.C. & Tenreyro, Silvana, 2010. "On the existence of the maximum likelihood estimates in Poisson regression," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 310-312, May.
    16. Suresh de Mel & David McKenzie & Christopher Woodruff, 2009. "Returns to Capital in Microenterprises: Evidence from a Field Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(1), pages 423-423.
    17. Fafchamps, Marcel & McKenzie, David & Quinn, Simon & Woodruff, Christopher, 2014. "Microenterprise growth and the flypaper effect: Evidence from a randomized experiment in Ghana," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 211-226.
    18. McKenzie, David & Sansone, Dario, 2019. "Predicting entrepreneurial success is hard: Evidence from a business plan competition in Nigeria," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    19. Stephen J. Anderson & David McKenzie, 2022. "Improving Business Practices and the Boundary of the Entrepreneur: A Randomized Experiment Comparing Training, Consulting, Insourcing, and Outsourcing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(1), pages 157-209.
    20. Kirill Borusyak & Xavier Jaravel & Jann Spiess, 2024. "Revisiting Event-Study Designs: Robust and Efficient Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(6), pages 3253-3285.
    21. Leonardo Iacovone & William Maloney & David McKenzie, 2022. "Improving Management with Individual and Group-Based Consulting: Results from a Randomized Experiment in Colombia," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(1), pages 346-371.
    22. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    23. Jiafeng Chen & Jonathan Roth, 2024. "Logs with Zeros? Some Problems and Solutions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(2), pages 891-936.
    24. Le, Minh-Phuong & Chauvet, Lisa & Marouani, Mohamed Ali, 2024. "The Great Lockdown and the Small Business: Impact, Channels and Adaptation to the Covid Pandemic," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    25. Charles Gottlieb & Jan GrobovsÌŒek & Markus Poschke & Fernando Saltiel, 2020. "Working from home: Implications for developing countries," Vox eBook Chapters, in: Simeon Djankov & Ugo Panizza (ed.), COVID-19 in Developing Economies, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 242-256, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    26. Betcherman, Gordon & Daysal, N. Meltem & Pagés, Carmen, 2010. "Do employment subsidies work? Evidence from regionally targeted subsidies in Turkey," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 710-722, August.
    27. David McKenzie & Christopher Woodruff, 2008. "Experimental Evidence on Returns to Capital and Access to Finance in Mexico," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(3), pages 457-482, November.
    28. Suresh de Mel & David McKenzie & Christopher Woodruff, 2019. "Labor Drops: Experimental Evidence on the Return to Additional Labor in Microenterprises," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 202-235, January.
    29. Cusolito, Ana P. & Darova, Ornella & McKenzie, David, 2023. "Capacity building as a route to export market expansion: A six-country experiment in the Western Balkans," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    30. Sergio Correia & Paulo Guimarães & Tom Zylkin, 2020. "Fast Poisson estimation with high-dimensional fixed effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 20(1), pages 95-115, March.
    31. Charles Gottlieb & Jan Grobovsek & Markus Poschke, 2020. "Working from Home across Countries," Cahiers de recherche 07-2020, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    32. repec:osf:socarx:gsyq4_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    33. John Haltiwanger & Ron S. Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2013. "Who Creates Jobs? Small versus Large versus Young," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 347-361, May.
    34. Simon Quinn & Christopher Woodruff, 2019. "Experiments and Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 225-248, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David McKenzie, 2017. "Identifying and Spurring High-Growth Entrepreneurship: Experimental Evidence from a Business Plan Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(8), pages 2278-2307, August.
    2. González-Uribe, Juanita & Reyes, Santiago, 2021. "Identifying and boosting “Gazelles”: Evidence from business accelerators," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 260-287.
    3. Gonzalez-Uribe, Juanita & Reyes, Santiago, 2021. "Identifying and boosting “gazelles”: evidence from business accelerators," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103145, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Islam, Asadul & Lee, Wang-Sheng & Triyana, Margaret & Xia, Xing, 2023. "Improving Health and Safety in the Informal Sector: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Bangladesh," IZA Discussion Papers 16150, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Inés Berniell & Leonardo Gasparini & Mariana Marchionni & Mariana Viollaz, 2023. "The role of children and work-from-home in gender labor market asymmetries: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1191-1214, December.
    6. David McKenzie & Anna Luisa Paffhausen, 2019. "Small Firm Death in Developing Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(4), pages 645-657, October.
    7. Sohail, Faisal, 2021. "From employee to entrepreneur: Learning, employer size, and spinout dynamics," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    8. Bernd Beber & Tabea Lakemann & Regina Schnars & Jann Lay, 2025. "Employment Effects of Skills Trainings in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of Recent Randomized Controlled Trials," De Economist, Springer, vol. 173(1), pages 87-120, March.
    9. Tingting Juni Zhu & Marcio Cruz, 2023. "Developing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems for Digital Businesses and Beyond," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 40305, April.
    10. Paul Rodríguez-Lesmes & Luis H. Gutiérrez & Juan Carlos Urueña-Mejía & Andrés Felipe Ortiz & Iván Darío Medina Rojas & Mauricio Romero, 2025. "The role of local promoters in helping microentrepreneurs engage in digital business training," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 15(1), pages 205-242, March.
    11. Bergeaud, Antonin & Eyméoud, Jean-Benoît & Garcia, Thomas & Henricot, Dorian, 2023. "Working from home and corporate real estate," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    12. Dalton,Patricio S. & Ruschenpohler,Julius & Zia,Bilal Husnain, 2018. "Determinants and dynamics of business aspirations : evidence from small-scale entrepreneurs in an emerging market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8400, The World Bank.
    13. Simone Schaner, 2018. "The Persistent Power of Behavioral Change: Long-Run Impacts of Temporary Savings Subsidies for the Poor," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 67-100, July.
    14. Henrik Hansen & John Rand & Finn Tarp & Neda Trifkovic, 2021. "Correction to: On the Link Between Managerial Attributes and Firm Access to Formal Credit in Myanmar," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(6), pages 2084-2086, December.
    15. Jonas Hjort & Vinayak Iyer & Golvine de Rochambeau, 2020. "Informational Barriers to Market Access: Experimental Evidence from Liberian Firms," Sciences Po Economics Discussion Papers hal-03389180, HAL.
    16. Oriana Bandiera & Robin Burgess & Erika Deserranno & Ricardo Morel & Imran Rasul & Munshi Sulaiman & Jack Thiemel, 2022. "Microfinance and Diversification," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(S1), pages 239-275, June.
    17. Carlos Díaz & Sebastian Fossati & Nicolás Trajtenberg, 2022. "Stay at home if you can: COVID‐19 stay‐at‐home guidelines and local crime," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), pages 1067-1113, December.
    18. Karlan, Dean S. & Knight, Ryan & Udry, Christopher R., 2012. "Hoping to Win, Expected to Lose: Theory and Lessons on Micro Enterprise Development," Center Discussion Papers 133405, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    19. Antonia Grohmann & Lukas Menkhoff & Helke Seitz, 2022. "The Effect of Personalized Feedback on Small Enterprises’ Finances in Uganda," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(3), pages 1197-1227.
    20. Mckenzie,David J., 2020. "Small Business Training to Improve Management Practices in Developing Countries: Reassessingthe Evidence for 'Training Doesn’t Work'," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9408, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11117. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.