Is Business Training for Women's Subsistence Businesses Futile?
Media Coverage
October 23, 2012
Given that evaluations of business training programs targeting female subsistence entrepreneurs have shown mixed results, David McKenzie asks if training programs aimed at improving business skills are worth the cost if entrepreneurs are constrained by underlying production technology. He posits that the seemingly small impact of the programs might be improved by combining business training with interventions that address what women entrepreneurs produce and how they produce it.
Measuring Entrepreneurship
Media Coverage
June 20, 2012
A two-part blog post covering various studies aimed at measuring entrepreneurship in developing countries. Read Part I and Part II. 
The Demand for, and Consequences of, Formalization among Informal Firms in Sri Lanka
Media Coverage
May 01, 2012
"The authors of this paper conducted a field experiment in Sri Lanka that provided incentives for informal firms to formalize…Their focus is largely on the private costs and benefits of existing firms formalizing.”
Capital ways to survive the worst
Media Coverage
April 03, 2012
"The results of an experiment in Sri Lanka [by Christopher Woodruff and David McKenzie] show the impact of financing on small businesses in communities shattered by natural disasters."
Constraints to growth in Sri Lanka and private enterprise development in low-income countries
Media Coverage
March 23, 2012
"Christopher Woodruff talks to Viv Davies about his recent research in Sri Lanka that looks at the constraints to growth of micro-enterprises and how to generate job creation; he highlights the effects of wage subsidies, savings programmes, entrepreneurship training, firm registration and the transition from small informal firms to more dynamic enterprises."
Should Development Organizations be Hunting Gazelles?
Media Coverage
December 14, 2011
"Should development institutions and policymakers be directing fewer resources at microfirms and more at high-growth-potential enterprises or gazelles?"
New School Economics
Media Coverage
June 01, 2011
"This book is a gem. Anyone serious about aid, philanthropy, or impact investing should read it, maybe a couple of times."
Research recap Part 3: in preparation for next week's Microfinance Impact & Innovation Conference
Suresh De Mel, David McKenzie, Christopher Woodruff
October 14, 2010

This is the third in a series of posts looking back at the last big microfinance conference held in 2008, co-hosted by IPA and FAI at Yale University.

There is still time to book places at next week's Microfinance Impact and Innovation Conference in New York. 

Below, a blog post from the 2008 conference by Timothy Ogden, editor-in-chief of Philanthropy Action.