Management Traits as Embodied Human Capital: A Randomised Field Experiment in Ethiopia

What is the effect of exposing motivated youth to firm management in practice?

From:
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Published
12 February 2021
Country:
Ethiopia
Document Type:
Research Paper
Theme:
Economic Growth
Authors:
Abebe, G, Fafchamps, M, Koelle, M, Quinn, S

Abstract

What is the effect of exposing motivated youth to firm management in practice? To answer this question, we place young professionals for one month in established firms to shadow middle managers. Using random assignment into program participation, we find positive average effects on wage employment, but no average effect on the likelihood of self-employment. Simulating counterfactual mechanisms to assign interns to firms, we find that some assignment mechanisms substantially outperform random matching in generating employment and income effects.

This work is part of the Private Enterprise Development in Low Income Countries (PEDL) programme

Citation

Abebe, G., Fafchamps, M., Koelle, M., Quinn, S. “Management Traits as Embodied Human Capital: A Randomised Field Experiment in Ethiopia” PEDL Research Note

Management Traits as Embodied Human Capital: A Randomised Field Experiment in Ethiopia

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Published 12 February 2021
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