The Impacts of Microfranchising on Young Women in Nairobi

Research Note
Published on 30 September 2014

Abstract

This project piloted the first ever randomized evaluation of ‘microfranchising,’ measuring the impact of a program intended to help young women in Nairobi launch small-scale franchise businesses. Preliminary findings show that young women involved in microfranchising are more likely to become self-employed entrepreneurs as a result of the intervention. This, in turn, suggests that the burden of devising a business plan significantly contributes to hindering entrepreneurship in developing countries. The experiment is currently being scaled up to a larger multi-arm impact evaluation that will assess the impact of the microfranchising program compared to both a pure control and an unrestricted cash grant treatment.