Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/69343 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7079
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In economies characterized by low labor demand and high rates of youth unemployment, entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create their own jobs. This paper presents experimental evidence on a new entrepreneurship track that provides business training and personalized coaching to university students in Tunisia. Undergraduates in the final year of licence appliquée were given the opportunity to graduate with a business plan instead of following the standard curriculum. This paper relies on randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to identify impacts on labor market outcomes one year after graduation. The analysis finds that the entrepreneurship track was effective in increasing self-employment among applicants, but that the effects are small in absolute terms. In addition, the employment rate among participants remains unchanged, pointing to a partial substitution from wage employment to self-employment. The evidence shows that the program fostered business skills, expanded networks, and affected a range of behavioral skills. Participation in the entrepreneurship track also heightened graduates' optimism toward the future shortly after the Tunisian revolution.
Subjects: 
youth employment
self-employment
entrepreneurship training
program evaluation
behavioral skills
soft skills
JEL: 
O12
J24
I21
L26
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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