Date of Graduation

Spring 5-15-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in International and Development Economics (MSIDEC)

College/School

College of Arts and Sciences

Department/Program

Economics

First Advisor

Bruce Wydick

Abstract

Microbusinesses are stagnant in growth across least developed countries due to their lack of managerial skills and limited access to the credit market. Current business methods aimed at increasing profitability for microentrepreneurs with limited capital in developing countries are only moderately successful in increasing growth. Having a mentor that has a localized business understanding can provide their mentee with the proper guidance on how to effectively manage their business to increase growth. This paper presents the results for a randomized controlled trial which identifies the average treatment effects of meeting with a mentor and observes the impact on business growth for female micro-entrepreneurs in Medellín, Colombia. I find that mentoring does not prove to be an effective intervention to increase business growth for female microentrepreneurs; however, the intervention did yield decreases in costs which is in parallel with recent literature. After implementing a LASSO regression, I observe that those who had less experience, had more than 40 years of age, and owned a clothing business, were subgroups that benefitted from mentoring the most. Thus, future mentoring interventions can consider these results for targeting microentrepreneurs in future mentoring interventions.

Download

Share

COinS