IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v38y2010i5p742-755.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Jump-starting Self-employment? Evidence for Welfare Participants in Argentina

Author

Listed:
  • Almeida, Rita K.
  • Galasso, Emanuela

Abstract

Summary We evaluate the effects of a self-employment program offered to welfare beneficiaries of a large safety net program in Argentina. The program promotes self-employment by providing financial and technical assistance. Our findings show that only a small and selected subset of welfare beneficiaries is attracted to this type of exit strategy (female household heads and more educated). Exploring non-experimental methods, we also show that in the short-run participation in the program affects the labor supply of participants, by reducing the probability of having an outside job and increasing the total number of hours worked. However, at least in the short-run, the intervention fails to produce income gains to the average participant.

Suggested Citation

  • Almeida, Rita K. & Galasso, Emanuela, 2010. "Jump-starting Self-employment? Evidence for Welfare Participants in Argentina," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 742-755, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:38:y:2010:i:5:p:742-755
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305-750X(09)00216-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dean Karlan & Martin Valdivia, 2011. "Teaching Entrepreneurship: Impact of Business Training on Microfinance Clients and Institutions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 510-527, May.
    2. Leonardo Gasparini & Francisco Haimovich & Sergio Olivieri, 2007. "Labor Informality Effects of a Poverty-Alleviation Program," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0053, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    3. John Fitzgerald & Peter Gottschalk & Robert Moffitt, 1998. "An Analysis of Sample Attrition in Panel Data: The Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(2), pages 251-299.
    4. Huw Lloyd-Ellis & Dan Bernhardt, 2000. "Enterprise, Inequality and Economic Development," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 67(1), pages 147-168.
    5. Emanuela Galasso & Martin Ravallion & Agustin Salvia, 2004. "Assisting the Transition from Workfare to Work: A Randomized Experiment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 58(1), pages 128-142, October.
    6. Banerjee, Abhijit V & Newman, Andrew F, 1993. "Occupational Choice and the Process of Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(2), pages 274-298, April.
    7. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2007. "The Economic Lives of the Poor," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 141-168, Winter.
    8. Jalan, Jyotsna & Ravallion, Martin, 2003. "Estimating the Benefit Incidence of an Antipoverty Program by Propensity-Score Matching," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 21(1), pages 19-30, January.
    9. Philippe Aghion & Patrick Bolton, 1997. "A Theory of Trickle-Down Growth and Development," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(2), pages 151-172.
    10. Richard Blundell & Monica Costa Dias, 2000. "Evaluation methods for non-experimental data," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 427-468, January.
    11. A. Smith, Jeffrey & E. Todd, Petra, 2005. "Does matching overcome LaLonde's critique of nonexperimental estimators?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 305-353.
    12. Emanuela Galasso & Martin Ravallion, 2004. "Social Protection in a Crisis: Argentina's Plan Jefes y Jefas," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 18(3), pages 367-399.
    13. James Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Jeffrey Smith & Petra Todd, 1998. "Characterizing Selection Bias Using Experimental Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(5), pages 1017-1098, September.
    14. Joshua D. Angrist, 1998. "Estimating the Labor Market Impact of Voluntary Military Service Using Social Security Data on Military Applicants," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(2), pages 249-288, March.
    15. Martin Ravallion & Emanuela Galasso & Teodoro Lazo & Ernesto Philipp, 2005. "What Can Ex-Participants Reveal about a Program’s Impact?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(1).
    16. Meyer, Bruce D, 1995. "Natural and Quasi-experiments in Economics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 151-161, April.
    17. Besley, Timothy & Coate, Stephen, 1992. "Workfare versus Welfare Incentive Arguments for Work Requirements in Poverty-Alleviation Programs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(1), pages 249-261, March.
    18. Alice Mesnard & Martin Ravallion, 2006. "The Wealth Effect on New Business Startups in a Developing Economy," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 73(291), pages 367-392, August.
    19. McKenzie, David J & Woodruff, Christopher, 2006. "Do Entry Costs Provide an Empirical Basis for Poverty Traps? Evidence from Mexican Microenterprises," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(1), pages 3-42, October.
    20. Heckman, James J. & Lalonde, Robert J. & Smith, Jeffrey A., 1999. "The economics and econometrics of active labor market programs," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1865-2097, Elsevier.
    21. Ravallion, Martin, 1999. "Appraising Workfare," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 14(1), pages 31-48, February.
    22. Ravallion, Martin, 2000. "Monitoring Targeting Performance When Decentralized Allocations to the Poor Are Unobserved," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 14(2), pages 331-345, May.
    23. Maloney, William F., 2004. "Informality Revisited," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1159-1178, July.
    24. Rebecca M. Blank, 2002. "Evaluating Welfare Reform in the United States," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1105-1166, December.
    25. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Keueger, 1991. "Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(4), pages 979-1014.
    26. McKenzie, David J, 2004. "Aggregate Shocks and Urban Labor Market Responses: Evidence from Argentina's Financial Crisis," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(4), pages 719-758, July.
    27. Betcherman, Gordon & Olivas, Karina & Dar, Amit, 2004. "Impacts of active labor market programs : new evidence from evaluations with particular attention to developing and transition countries," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 29142, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. López Mourelo, Elva & Escudero, Verónica, 2017. "Effectiveness of Active Labor Market Tools in Conditional Cash Transfers Programs: Evidence for Argentina," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 422-447.
    2. Chris Elbers & Jan Willem Gunning, 2014. "Evaluation of Development Programs: Randomized Controlled Trials or Regressions?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(3), pages 432-445.
    3. Verónica Escudero & Jochen Kluve & Elva López Mourelo & Clemente Pignatti, 2019. "Active Labour Market Programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(12), pages 2644-2661, December.
    4. Malerba, Daniele, 2022. "Just transitions: A review of how to decarbonise energy systems while addressing poverty and inequality reduction," IDOS Discussion Papers 6/2022, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    5. Cho, Yoonyoung & Honorati, Maddalena, 2014. "Entrepreneurship programs in developing countries: A meta regression analysis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 110-130.
    6. 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.
    7. Escudero, Verónica & López Mourelo, Elva & Pignatti, Clemente, 2020. "Joint provision of income and employment support: Evidence from a crisis response in Uruguay," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    8. Gehrke, Esther & Hartwig, Renate, 2015. "How can public works programmes create sustainable employment?," IDOS Discussion Papers 11/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    9. Caliendo, Marco & Künn, Steffen & Wießner, Frank, 2012. "Der Gründungszuschuss in Brandenburg: Eine regionale Analyse," IZA Research Reports 48, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. 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.
    11. Premand, Patrick & Brodmann, Stefanie & Almeida, Rita & Grun, Rebekka & Barouni, Mahdi, 2016. "Entrepreneurship Education and Entry into Self-Employment Among University Graduates," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 311-327.
    12. Marco Caliendo & Steffen Künn, 2015. "Getting back into the labor market: the effects of start-up subsidies for unemployed females," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(4), pages 1005-1043, October.
    13. Bertrand,Marianne & Crepon,Bruno Jacques Jean Philippe & Marguerie,Alicia Charlene & Premand,Patrick, 2021. "Do Workfare Programs Live Up to Their Promises ? Experimental Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9611, The World Bank.
    14. Pignatti Clemente & Van Belle Eva, 2021. "Better together: Active and passive labor market policies in developed and developing economies," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, January.
    15. Helena Marques, 2017. "Gender, entrepreneurship and development: which policies matter?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(2), pages 197-228, January.
    16. 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.
    17. Francis J. Greene, 2021. "Stimulating Youth Entrepreneurship," Springer Books, in: Thomas M. Cooney (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Minority Entrepreneurship, edition 1, pages 159-178, Springer.
    18. Elbers, Chris & Gunning, Jan Willem, 2014. "Evaluation of non-governmental development organizations," WIDER Working Paper Series 026, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Kluve, Jochen., 2016. "A review of the effectiveness of active labour market programmes with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean," ILO Working Papers 994901193402676, International Labour Organization.
    20. Balasubramanian, Pooja & Ibanez, Marcela & Khan, Sarah & Sahoo, Soham, 2024. "Does women's economic empowerment promote human development in low- and middle-income countries? A meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    21. Chris Elbers & Jan Willem Gunning, 2014. "Evaluation of Non-Governmental Development Organizations," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-026, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    22. Premand, Patrick & Brodmann, Stefanie & Almeida, Rita K. & Grun, Rebekka & Barouni, Mahdi, 2012. "Entrepreneurship Training and Self-Employment among University Graduates: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Tunisia," IZA Discussion Papers 7079, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    23. Xue Yang & Shili Guo & Xin Deng & Dingde Xu, 2021. "Livelihood Adaptation of Rural Households under Livelihood Stress: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-19, May.
    24. Marco Mariani & Alessandra Mattei & Lorenzo Storchi & Daniele Vignoli, 2017. "The ambiguous effects of public assistance to youth and female start-ups between job creation and entrepreneurship enhancement," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2017_04, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".

    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. Almeida, Rita K. & Galasso, Emanuela, 2007. "Jump-Starting Self-Employment? Evidence among Welfare Participants in Argentina," IZA Discussion Papers 2902, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Ravallion, Martin, 2008. "Evaluating Anti-Poverty Programs," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 59, pages 3787-3846, Elsevier.
    3. Todd, Petra E., 2012. "Effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving women's employability and quality of work : a critical review," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6189, The World Bank.
    4. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    5. Natalia Pimenta Monteiro, 2010. "Using propensity matching estimators to evaluate the impact of privatization on wages," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(10), pages 1293-1313.
    6. Marianne Bertrand & Bruno Crépon & Alicia Marguerie & Patrick Premand, 2021. "Do Workfare Programs Live Up to Their Promises? Experimental Evidence from Cote D’Ivoire," NBER Working Papers 28664, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Centeno, Luis & Centeno, Mário & Novo, Álvaro A., 2009. "Evaluating job-search programs for old and young individuals: Heterogeneous impact on unemployment duration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 12-25, January.
    8. Chakravarty, Shubha & Lundberg, Mattias & Nikolov, Plamen & Zenker, Juliane, 2019. "Vocational training programs and youth labor market outcomes: Evidence from Nepal," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 71-110.
    9. Fajnzylber, Pablo & Maloney, William F. & Rojas, Gabriel V. Montes, 2006. "Releasing constraints to growth or pushing on a string ? the impact of credit, training, business associations, and taxes on the performance of Mexican micro-firms," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3807, The World Bank.
    10. Leonardo Gasparini & Francisco Haimovich & Sergio Olivieri, 2007. "Labor Informality Effects of a Poverty-Alleviation Program," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0053, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    11. Emanuela Galasso & Martin Ravallion, 2004. "Social Protection in a Crisis: Argentina's Plan Jefes y Jefas," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 18(3), pages 367-399.
    12. Richard K. Crump & V. Joseph Hotz & Guido W. Imbens & Oscar A. Mitnik, 2006. "Moving the Goalposts: Addressing Limited Overlap in the Estimation of Average Treatment Effects by Changing the Estimand," NBER Technical Working Papers 0330, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Ana Iturriza & Arjun S. Bedi & Robert Sparrow, 2011. "Unemployment Assistance and Transition to Employment in Argentina," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(4), pages 811-837.
    14. Karaivanov, Alexander & Yindok, Tenzin, 2022. "Involuntary entrepreneurship – Evidence from Thai urban data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    15. Markus Frölich, 2004. "Programme Evaluation with Multiple Treatments," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 181-224, April.
    16. Czarnitzki, Dirk & Lopes-Bento, Cindy, 2013. "Value for money? New microeconometric evidence on public R&D grants in Flanders," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 76-89.
    17. Michael Lechner, 2002. "Some practical issues in the evaluation of heterogeneous labour market programmes by matching methods," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 165(1), pages 59-82, February.
    18. Richard Blundell & Lorraine Dearden & Barbara Sianesi, 2003. "Evaluating the impact of education on earnings in the UK: Models, methods and results from the NCDS," IFS Working Papers W03/20, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    19. Richard Blundell & Monica Costa Dias, 2009. "Alternative Approaches to Evaluation in Empirical Microeconomics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(3).
    20. Miguel Angel Malo & Fernando Muñoz-Bullón, 2006. "Employment promotion measures and the quality of the job match for persons with disabilities," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 179(4), pages 79-111, September.

    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:eee:wdevel:v:38:y:2010:i:5:p:742-755. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    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.