Complementing business training with access to finance: Evidence from SMEs in Kenya
中文摘要
本文考察肯尼亚中小企业（SMEs）商业培训与及时获得金融资本之间的互补性。我们研究的商业支持项目中所有参与者均接受培训。三分之一的参与者在培训后立即获得贷款机会（同期贷款组），三分之一在培训六周后获得贷款机会（延迟贷款组），其余三分之一再过四周后才获得贷款机会（对照组）。虽然较长的时间间隔可能会降低中小企业对知识的保留和应用，但同期获得贷款及相关的商业支出也可能会分散企业家改进商业实践的注意力。我们在意向处理估计和处理组平均处理效应估计中均发现了支持后一种机制的证据。虽然对照组和延迟贷款组的中小企业都改进了其商业实践，但同期贷款组中实际获得贷款的中小企业完全没有改进其实践。此外，获得贷款的企业家在其企业上投入的时间更少，其企业收入也随之下降。
• 培训后立即提供贷款会削弱中小企业在商业实践上的改进。
• 培训后延迟获得贷款有助于企业家专注于落实培训所学内容。
• 获得贷款会减少受处理企业家投入其企业的时间，并降低企业绩效。
Abstract
This paper investigates the complementarity between business training and timely access to financial capital for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya. All participants in the business support program we study are offered training. One-third of participants are offered loans immediately after training ( Concurrent Loan group), one-third are offered loans six weeks after training ( Delayed Loan group), and the remaining third are offered loans after another four weeks ( Control group). While a long time lag may reduce knowledge retention and application among SMEs, concurrent access to loans and associated business spending may divert the entrepreneurs’ attention away from improving business practices. We find evidence for the latter in both intention-to-treat and treatment-on-the-treated estimates. While SMEs in both Control and Delayed Loan groups improve their business practices, SMEs in the Concurrent Loan group who take loans do not improve their practices at all. Moreover, entrepreneurs who take loans spend less time on their businesses and experience declines in their business revenue. • Providing loans immediately after business training reduces improvements in business practices for small and medium enterprises. • A delayed access to loans after training helps entrepreneurs to focus on implementing training lessons. • Access to loans reduces the time treated entrepreneurs spend on their businesses and lowers business performance.