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VIEWS: 15 PAGES: 39 CATEGORY: Personal Finance POSTED ON: 6/2/2012
Keeping it Simple: Financial Literacy and Rules of Thumb Alejandro Drexler, Greg Fischer, and Antoinette Schoar January 2011 Abstract Individuals and business owners engage in an increasingly complex ar- ray of …nancial decisions that are critical for their success and well-being. Yet a growing literature documents that in both developed and developing countries, a large fraction of the population is unprepared to make these decisions. Evidence on potential remedies is limited and mixed. Two ran- domized trials test the impact of …nancial training on …rm-level and individ- ual outcomes for microentrepreneurs in the Dominican Republic. We …nd no signi…cant e¤ect from a standard, fundamentals-based accounting train- ing. However, a simpli…ed, rule-of-thumb training produced signi…cant and economically meaningful improvements in business practices and outcomes. Keywords: …nancial literacy, entrepreneurship, business training, mi- cro…nance, adult education JEL Classi…cation Codes: C93, D12, I21, J24, O12 UT Austin (email@example.com); London School of Economics, Innova- tions for Poverty Action, and Jameel Poverty Action Lab (g.…firstname.lastname@example.com); and MIT, NBER, and ideas42 (firstname.lastname@example.com), respectively. We would like to thank Héber Delgado and Xi- mena Cadena for exceptional research assistance. We are also deeply indebted to numerous individuals at ADOPEM whose dedication and patience were critical to this project. Particular thanks are due to Mercedes de Canalda, Mercedes Canalda de Beras-Goico, Eva Carvajal de Toribio, Eddy Santana, Juan Francisco Terrero, Claribel Diaz, and Felipe Diaz. We are grateful to Sendhil Mullainathan, Simeon Djankov, Bobbi Gray, Russell Toth and seminar participants at MIT, LSE, UT Austin, the CEPR Development Economics Workshop, the Micro…nance Impact and Innovation Conference, and Cornell for many helpful comments and suggestion. Financial support from the IFC and two anonymous donors is acknowledged and greatly appreciated. 1 Introduction Individuals are asked to make …nancial decisions in many areas of life, whether in their personal …nances in the form of savings decisions and retirement planning or in a business context as small business owners or investors. However, a growing literature shows that a large fraction of the population is woefully unprepared (or underprepared) to make these decisions. Lusardi and Mitchell (2007b) or Lusardi and Tufano (2009), for example, …nd low levels of …nancial literacy in the US population, an inability to understand basic …nancial concepts such as the importance of retirement savings, and poor judgment in borrowing decisions. Similarly, Cole, Sampson, and Zia (2009) document very low levels of …nancial literacy for households in India and Indonesia. In addition, these studies …nd a strong association between understanding …nancial concepts, better …nancial decisions, and household well-being. The challenge is to determine whether and how …nancial literacy can be taught and, closely related, whether there is causal link between improving …nancial lit- eracy and …nancial outcomes. The evidence so far has been mixed, with large heterogeneity in the estimated success of training programs. For example, Bern- heim and Garrett (2003) and Lusardi (2004) provide survey evidence that people who attend …nancial counseling programs subsequently make better …nancial de- cisions, especially those attendees with low income and education levels. The estimated e¤ects of the program are large, but due to the non-random treatment o assignment might be overstated due to selection bias. In contrast, Du‡ and Saez (2003) conduct a randomized control trial to expose employees to a bene…ts fair to raise awareness about retirement savings, but they …nd only a small e¤ect on sav- ings plan enrollment. Similarly, Cole, Sampson, and Zia (2009) …nd only modest e¤ects from a …nancial literacy training program in Indonesia. The contribution of our paper is twofold. The …rst is methodological: we conduct a randomized control experiment to test the impact of …nancial training on …rm-level and individual outcomes for microentrepreneurs in the Dominican Republic. It is important to keep in mind that any study of this kind tests not only the impact of …nancial literacy but implicitly also whether these skills can be transmitted via classroom training. Therefore our second contribution is con- ceptual: we test whether the type of program determines the e¤ectiveness of the training. The impact of a program might be crucially driven by the complexity of the materials, since any training program faces a trade-o¤ between ease at which participants can grasp the concepts and the depth of understanding. 1 In order to analyze what are the most e¤ective ways of teaching …nancial ac- counting skills to small business owners, we developed two distinct types of …nan- cial accounting training that rely on di¤erent approaches to training. We focus on the tradeo¤ between a standard approach to small business training, which teaches the fundamentals of …nancial accounting, and training based on simple rules of thumb. The former aims to provide a relatively complete understand- ing of …nancial decision making, with concepts and materials targeted towards the typical micro…nance client. Similar programs are used around the world by groups such as Freedom for Hunger, the International Labor Organization, and BRAC. The latter provides a simpli…ed view of …nancial decision making, teaching easily implemented decision rules without explaining the underlying accounting motiva- tion. For example, instead of teaching the details of working capital management at even the rudimentary level of traditional accounting training, the rule-of-thumb training instructs micro-entrepreneurs to assign themselves a wage at the begin- ning of each month, which they pay out to themselves on a weekly basis, but apart from this they cannot take any money out the …rm. This way the owner can learn ow how pro…table the business is without having to do any cash ‡ analysis. In contrast, the basic accounting training is designed to teach micro-entrepreneurs the basics of double-entry accounting, cash and working capital management and investment decisions. This class follows the traditional approach of teaching …rst principals. Our aim is to quantify the e¤ectiveness of training when trading o¤ the complexity of the material versus the depth of the concepts that are taught. Between November 2006 and July 2008, we implemented a randomized control trial of these di¤erent …nancial accounting classes in collaboration with ADOPEM, a micro…nance institution that lends to individuals and small businesses in the Dominican Republic. We selected 1200 existing clients of ADOPEM who had expressed an interest in training and randomly assigned them to one of the two accounting trainings or a control group that did not receive any training. In or- der to begin understanding the potential limitations to classroom-based, …nancial training, we also randomly assigned half of the people in each of the treatment and control groups to receive follow-on training consisting of in-person visits of a s …nancial trainer to the micro-entrepreneur' business. When necessary, the train- ers reviewed the class materials with the entrepreneurs and helped clarify any questions they might have had. The purpose of the on-site visits was to ensure that individuals understood the material and were capable of implementing their newly-acquired …nancial accounting skills in their businesses.1 This structure al- 1 The control group received placebo follow-up visits to control for possible monitoring e¤ects. 2 lows us to di¤erentiate the channel by which training a¤ects the participants: If we do not …nd an e¤ect of training we can determine whether this result is due to the inability of the participants to understand what was taught in class or whether the material itself, even when properly understood, is not helpful. Our results show an asymmetric impact of the rule-of-thumb training compared to the basic accounting training. People who were o¤ered rule-of-thumb based training showed signi…cant improvements in the way they managed their …nances as a result of the training relative to the control group which was not o¤ered training. They were more likely to keep accounting records, calculate monthly revenues and separate their books for the business and the home. Improvements along these dimensions are on the order of a 10% increase. In contrast, we did not …nd any signi…cant changes for the people in the basic accounting training. It appears that in this context, the rule-of-thumb training is more likely to be implemented by the clients than the basic accounting training. When looking at the impact of training on the outcomes of the business we again …nd a more signi…cant change in the group that received the rule-of-thumb training compared to the group in the basic accounting training. We see an es- pecially large improvement in the level of sales during bad weeks— 30% for peo- ple in the Rule-of-Thumb based training— and a substantial but not statistically signi…cant increase in average sales. The basic accounting training produces no signi…cant e¤ects. We do not see any discernible e¤ects on investment behavior or pro…tability of the …rms in either treatment group; however, these variables are reported with such noise that we are unable to reject even large e¤ects. Taken together, these results suggest that e¤ective training may operate by helping indi- viduals to better manage negative shocks or by alerting them to such shocks such that they can counteract the e¤ect of slow weeks. We also …nd an economically large increase in savings of 6% for the rule-of- thumb trainings, but the result is only signi…cant at the 10%-level. We do not …nd any e¤ect on savings for the group that received the basic accounting training.2 Finally, we …nd that in-depth follow-on training at the business of the borrower 2 We also investigate whether there are heterogeneous treatment e¤ects of the treatment for people with di¤erent levels of educational background and for borrowers that have individual loans versus group loans. We do not …nd any consistent di¤erences in outcomes for the borrow- ers with two di¤erent loan types. But we …nd some heterogeneous treatment e¤ects for more educated clients in the basic accounting training. More educated clients tend to show signi…cant improvements when allocated to the basic accounting training, e.g. their savings and likelihood of record keeping increases. However, the e¤ects are not signi…cant across all outcomes. In contrast we do not …nd any di¤erential e¤ect of education for clients in the rule of thumb based training. 3 did not a¤ect the outcomes for clients in the rule-of-thumb based training. We neither see a change in the likelihood of implementing the accounting methods learned in class nor an impact on actual outcomes for the business. In contrast, people who received the follow-on training in the basic accounting group did show a signi…cant increase in the probability of implementing the accounting practices taught in class. They also had a signi…cant increase in savings levels of about 10%. However, we did not …nd an improvement on real outcomes of the businesses such as sales or investments. These results support the idea that the rule-of- thumb training is more e¤ective because it is easier to understand, but it also generates larger results conditional on understanding, which was ensured through follow-on visits. This di¤erence may stem from either the rule-of-thumb techniques being more e¤ective once implemented or from individuals being more likely to implement these techniques, even conditional on understanding. We believe that a potential channel how these results occur is that better …nancial controls allow a business owner to adjust the e¤ort level more e¤ectively or manage inventory and product o¤ering better. The …ndings from this study also have important implications for programs designed to help micro entrepreneurs. International development organizations, NGOs and others spend a lot of e¤ort on …nancial literacy training in their tech- nical assistance programs but often report only mixed success. But if micro- entrepreneurs are unable to e¤ectively control the …nances in their businesses, it is very di¢ cult to e¢ ciently scale up operations even if the …rm has access to other resources. Thus our results suggest that lack of knowledge in …nance and …nancial accounting might impede the growth of small businesses. y The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 brie‡ describes the related literature, and Section 3 details the experimental design. Section 4 de- scribes the data and empirical strategy, Section 5 presents the results, and Section 6 concludes. 2 Related Literature and Background A growing literature has documented the low level of …nancial literacy in the general population and its impact on individual decision making. Lusardi (2008) …nds widespread lack of …nancial literacy among large sections of the U.S. popu- lation, especially among people with low levels of education, women, and ethnic minorities. This lack of …nancial literacy is associated with poor …nancial decision making, in particular regarding retirement planning (Lusardi and Mitchell 2007a), 4 borrowing decisions (Lusardi and Tufano 2009, Stango and Zinman 2009), in- vestment choices (Lusardi and Mitchell 2007b), and participation in the formal …nancial system (van Rooij, Lusardi, and Alessie 2007). Yet despite the strong association between …nancial literacy and a range of measures of …nancial well-being, little is known about the e¢ cacy of …nancial liter- acy training programs in improving these outcomes (Braunstein and Welch 2002). Causal inference for many studies is hindered by endogenous selection into training programs.3 Where causal e¤ects can be clearly identi…ed, the results are mixed. Bernheim, Garrett, and Maki (2001) exploit variation across states and time in mandatory …nancial education for high school students and …nd that mandates increased exposure to …nancial curricula and asset accumulation; however, subse- quent work by Cole and Shastry (2009) uses a larger sample and …nds little e¤ect. Cole, Sampson, and Zia (2009) conduct a randomized control trial of a …nancial education program in Indonesia. They …nd that while …nancial literacy is strongly correlated with the demand for …nancial services, …nancial literacy education had at most modest e¤ects on demand and was dwarfed by the e¤ect of even a small subsidy to opening a savings account. Moreover, most studies use the term "…nancial literacy"training to refer to a myriad of di¤erent programs, varying from one-day consultation sessions in the …eld to one year of detailed in-class training. This variation makes it di¢ cult to interpret results and compare the impact of training across studies. In particu- lar, these studies do not allow one to test which features of literacy training are more e¤ective than others. In contrast, in our work we explicitly test the impact of di¤erent types of …nancial literacy training— standard accounting and a sim- pli…ed, rules-of-thumb approach— with the aim of beginning to understand the mechanisms through which training programs may or may not work. We also focus on a speci…c type of training aimed at small business owners. Surprisingly few studies have looked at …nancial literacy for this population, even though signi…cant resources are devoted to accounting and …nancial literacy train- ing for them.4 One notable exception is Karlan and Valdivia (2010), which studies 3 Meier and Sprenger (2008), for example, document that individuals who choose to acquire personal …nancial information through a credit counseling program discount the future less than individuals who choose not to participate. 4 s Organization' Know About Business Programme, and the Financial Education for the Poor (FEP) project sponsored by Micro…nance Opportunities, the Citigroup Foundation, and Freedom From Hunger and many others aim to teach …nancial skills at huge expnse every year. The SBA training includes modules on …nance and accounting, business planning, business start up, business management, government contracting, marketing and advertising, and how to survive in a slow economy. The training is available online at http://www.sba.gov/training/. The FEP targets micro…nance clients, many of them having only subsistence level business activity. 5 the impact of teaching basic …nance concepts to micro-entrepreneurs.5 The study …nds a large impact on the MFI clients'knowledge of …nancial terms and reported business practices. Results are more mixed on real outcomes such as sales or con- sumption, but the micro…nance institution bene…ted from increased retention and repayment. Field, Jayachandran, and Pande (2010) evaluate a two-day training program for clients of an Indian micro…nance institution. Their study focuses s on constraints to women' entrepreneurial choices and …nds that being invited to the training program increased both borrowing and the likelihood of personal la- bor income. A recent program evaluation by Berge, Bjorvatn, and Tungodden (2010) evaluates the e¤ect of …nancial grants and a wide-ranging business training program for clients of a micro…nance institution in Tanzania. They …nd little s e¤ect on female clients, but a substantial impact on men' business practices and outcomes. There is a related strand in the literature on capacity building for small- and medium-size enterprises that focuses on providing consulting and management ser- vices to …rms. Bloom, Eifert, Mahajan, McKenzie, and Roberts (2010) study the impact of intensive consulting services from an international management consult- ing …rm on the business practices of medium- to large-size …rms in the Indian tex- tile industry. Even these large …rms were unaware of many modern management practices, and treated plants signi…cantly improved their management practices. Bruhn, Karlan, and Schoar (2010) conduct a randomized control trial of consulting services in which small businesses were paired with a local management consultant for one year. The study assigned …rms to a wide range of management consulting services, with …nancial literacy was an integral part of the intervention. More than 30% of the …rms requested …nancial advice as one of the main inputs. We contribute to this literature by conducting a randomized control experi- ment which explicitly compares the impact of standard accounting training with a simpli…ed, rule-of-thumb-based program. In this vein, we build on a growing liter- ature that supports the merits of simpli…cation in settings as varied as retirement savings plan enrollment (Beshears, Choi, Laibson, and Madrian 2010, Choi, Laib- son, and Madrian 2009), Medicare drug plans (Mullainathan and Sha…r 2009), weight loss (Mata, Todd, and Lippke 2010), and college student loan applica- tions (Bettinger, Long, Oreopoulos, and Sanbonmatsu 2009). Research in cog- nitive psychology o¤ers additional evidence that simpler rules and less feedback The FEP project includes …ve modules: credit administration, savings, …nancial negotiation, budgeting, and bank services. 5 The micro-entrepreneurs in their study are part of a group lending program with weekly meetings. In these weekly sessions, clients in the treatment group also receive training. 6 may be preferable in certain learning environments (Maddox, Love, Glass, and Filoteo 2008, Maes and Eling 2007). As Feldman (2003) notes, it is not surprising that more complex tasks are also often more di¢ cult to learn. However, this seemingly obvious idea has until recently played little role in theories of concept learning. Similarly, the trend in business and …nancial literacy training appears to have been towards increasing complexity. In the context of Dominican mi- croentrepreneurs, our results suggest that optimality may lie in the direction of simpli…cation. 3 Experimental Design ADOPEM is a savings and credit bank based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Re- public and serving primarily low-income, urban individuals and small businesses throughout the country. ADOPEM was founded in 1982 as a non-governmental organization providing a range of programs aimed at reducing poverty levels in the Dominican Republic. Since then, they have increased their focus on …nancial ser- vices and related activities, incorporating as a bank in 2004. Large by Dominican standards, in 2006 ADOPEM had approximately 59,000 clients in 19 branches. The bank o¤ers a wide range of lending products; in 2006, 90% of loans were for amounts between RD$2,500 and RD$50,000 (US$70-1,400). Over that same period, 56% of loans were made to individual persons or businesses and 44% were made to solidarity groups of two to …ve borrowers.6 Approximately 80% of these clients were women. In addition to extending loans, ADOPEM o¤ers savings, insurance, and remit- tance products. It also operates a training center, with programs ranging from basic computing, entrepreneurship, and speci…c trade skills. In the year before this experiment was launched, ADOPEM was actively planning to launch a dedicated …nancial education program and was interested in evaluating di¤erent approaches. We worked with ADOPEM and Dominican training experts to develop two alternative …nancial education training programs. The Accounting treatment of- fered a traditional, principles-based course in basic accounting techniques. Topics covered included daily record keeping of cash sales and expenses, aggregation of daily records into weekly and monthly reports, inventory management, accounts 6 s ADOPEM' solidarity groups follow the traditional joint liability model. Each borrower takes out his or her loan as an individual, but all group members are jointly responsible for s one another' repayment. Should any member fail to repay, each member su¤ers the default consequences as if she herself failed to repay. 7 receivable and accounts payable, calculating cash pro…ts, and investment planning. The materials and capacitator training program for the Accounting treatment were based on the …nancial education program designed by Freedom from Hunger, a US-based non-pro…t organization, and the Citigroup Foundation and adapted to local conditions.7 The Rule-of-Thumb treatment taught participants simple rules for …nancial decision making, focusing on the need to separate business and personal accounts. Account separation is a staple rule in developed country entrepreneurship. In developing countries, where the tax and legal motivations for account separation often are weaker, it continues to receive a great deal of attention. The proposed bene…ts of account separation are twofold. On the one hand it is seen as a very crude but easy way to monitor whether the business is self sustainable and pro- vides an estimate of the pro…tability of the business. The second rationale is more behavioral: keeping accounts separate serves as a commitment device for the busi- ness owner (or the family members and relatives) not to overconsume and deplete the working capital in the business. In addition to presenting several strategies for physically separating business and personal funds, the Rule-of-Thumb treatment taught how to estimate business pro…ts by simple changes in business cash on hand, paying oneself a …xed salary, distinguishing business and personal expenses, and easy-to-implement tools for reconciling accounts when business funds have been used for personal expenses or the reverse. In both treatments, clients re- ceived handouts and homework assignments to reinforce ideas or techniques from the meetings. Both classes were o¤ered once a week for three hours at a time. The Accounting treatment lasted for six weeks and the Rule-of-Thumb treatment for …ve. As described in Table A1, the …rst three classes of both treatments covered consumption, savings, and debt management. The …nal three classes of the Ac- counting treatment comprised basic cash accounting, distinguishing business and personal expenses, calculating pro…ts, and working capital management. Classes four and …ve of the Rule-of-Thumb treatment focused on separating business and personal money and estimation techniques for calculating pro…ts. Attendance for classes one through …ve did not di¤er across the two treatments. The sample consisted of 1,193 existing ADOPEM business or personal loan 7 The ADOPEM training program is most closely related to the budgeting module of the FFH training program. This module includes training on: how to develop a …nancial plan for the household expenses, how to adapt the spending to a restricted income, how to develop a budget for the house and the business, how to prioritize spending, how to record income and expenses, how to use income and expenses book keeping to make …nancial decisions, and how to store …nancial documents. Importantly, both ADOPEM training programs focused on maintaining a clear separation of business accounts. 8 clients from Santo Domingo.8 Of these, we assigned 402 to the Accounting treat- ment, 404 to the Rule-of-Thumb treatment, and 387 to a control group which received no additional training services. The treatment was assigned at the indi- vidual level and administrative data was used to stratify according to loan size, years of borrowing, and whether or not a client maintained a formal savings ac- count with the bank. ADOPEM made no additional policy changes concurrent with the training program. The treatment was conducted in two waves. The …rst wave, comprising 302 treatment assignments, was conducted from March to May 2007, and the second wave comprising the remainder ran from July to August of the same year.9 We also randomly assigned both treatment and control individuals to follow- up visits of varying intensity. This begins to unpack the mechanisms through which classroom-based training works or does not work. If the training does not change management practices or improve outcomes, it could be that individuals did not understand or were unable to implement new management techniques af- ter classroom training. Alternatively, it could be that individuals understood the management techniques but chose not to implement. Finally, it could be that even when the material is understood and implemented, it does not a¤ect business per- formance. In the intensive follow-up, training personnel visited participants eight times over three months in order to answer any questions that students have about the materials, to verify and encourage completion of accounting books, and to cor- rect any mistakes made in completing these books. The intermediate follow-up comprised …ve visits over six weeks. These treatments were randomly assigned con- ditional on a client attending the …rst class. In order to assess potential Hawthorne E¤ects induced by the follow-up, randomly selected members of the control group also received a "dummy" follow-up, in which they were visited by training sta¤ and asked questions about their business performance over a period of six weeks.10 All courses were taught by quali…ed local instructors. The majority had univer- 8 At the request of ADOPEM, group loan clients with loans smaller than $RD15,000 were excluded from the study. The original sample comprised 1,200; however, 7 observations were discarded due to errors in the baseline survey. 9 A third wave of 800 individuals across all three assignment categories was planned for late 2007, but was cancelled due to the disruption caused by Hurricanes Dean and Noel and Tropical Storm Olga. 10 While the visits in the intermediate follow-up were initially intended only to verify under- standing and not implement techniques, in practice it was not feasible for training personnel to deny requests for assistance when visiting treated households. At the request of training person- nel and ADOPEM, the intermediate follow-up was implemented as a lower-intensity version of the full follow-up. In the analysis that follows, we group together treatments of both intensity levels. 9 sity degrees and experience with adult education, in most cases with ADOPEM directly. Courses were o¤ered at seven schools throughout Santo Domingo and scheduled based on preferences elicited during the baseline survey. In addition, the course was heavily subsidized. Fees were randomly assigned at RD$200 (ap- proximately US$6) or zero, relative to an overall program cost of approximately RD$700. We varied fees in order to test for selection e¤ects. As noted in Kar- lan and Valdivia (2010), the emerging approach to business development services calls for pricing training services at or above marginal costs. However, if those s entrepreneurs who would most bene…t are uncertain of the program' bene…ts or subject to tighter credit constraints, this approach may induce adverse selection. 4 Data and Empirical Strategy We constructed the original sample frame based on administrative data collected by ADOPEM in the ordinary course of operations. In November 2006, we con- ducted a baseline survey of each study participant using a professional survey …rm una¢ liated with ADOPEM. We collected information on household and business characteristics, business practices and performance, business skills, training his- tory, and interest in future training. The endline survey was conducted during the summer of 2008, at least 12 months after training was completed. We augmented the surveys with administrative data from ADOPEM. Table 1 reports summary statistics for the full sample and each of the three assignment groups from the baseline data collected in November 2006. Given that the treatments were randomly assigned, we expect individuals in the three assign- ment groups to be similar in the baseline.11 As shown in the table, this expecta- tion generally holds; however, individuals assigned to the Accounting treatment are marginally less likely to report keeping accounting records or separating their business and personal accounts. Individuals in the Rule-of-Thumb training also report lower revenues in average and bad weeks, although these di¤erences fall below the 10%-signi…cance level. Therefore, we control for these characteristics in the regression analytics that follow. Based on our sample size of approximately 400 individuals per assignment group, any small-sample bias introduced by inclusion of these baseline characteristics as covariates is minimal. As shown in the table, the average loan size for all participants in the study was RD$26,514, approximately US$750; the median was RD$20,000. The median 11 As described above, strati…cation utilized administrative records. Baseline survey data was not available at the time of assignment. 10 borrower in the sample reported revenues during an average week of RD$3,000 (US$85). Median good week and bad week revenues were RD$4,000 and RD$1,500, respectively. Approximately 60% of the businesses were sole proprietorships— with no employees in addition to the borrower. Of the rest, 80% have one or two employees in addition to the borrower and few have more than …ve. Typical businesses include small retail shops, general stores (colmados), beauty salons and food service. Approximately half of participants operate businesses engaged in retail sales and trading. The endline survey conducted in mid-2008 reached 87% of participants report- ing in the baseline. Intensive e¤orts were made to contact all participants using bank and phone records, and we believe that many of the individuals we were unable to reach in the endline had migrated outside of the Dominican Republic. Although attrition rates are relatively low considering the endline survey follow-up window, there is some evidence for selective attrition. Treatment group individuals who were not reached for the endline survey have higher baseline revenues than those who dropped from the control group. The di¤erences in reported weekly sales range from 0.27 standard deviations (average weekly sales) to 0.45 standard deviations (bad week sales). This suggests that the reported results for business outcomes may understate the program' true e¤ect.12 s Random assignment of treatment allows us to obtain unbiased estimates of the e¤ect of being o¤ered the training program by estimating the following equation: E B yi = + T reati + Xi + yi + "i , (1) E where yi is the endline value of the outcome variable of interest; T reati is an indicator for being assigned to the treatment; Xi is a matrix of baseline-measured covariates including business types, loan size, and participation in an ADOPEM B savings account. The pre-treatment measure of the outcome variable, yi , ex- plains a substantial share of the variance in outcomes across individuals and is included where available. We estimate equation (1) separately for each training type, alternately excluding participants assigned to the other training program. s The parameter is an estimate of the program' average e¤ect on outcome y. For binary outcome variables, we estimate a linear probability model following the same speci…cation in (1), which allows interpretation of as the di¤erence in the mean level of an activity, e.g., keeping formal accounts, conditional on assignment 12 Table 14 reports non-parametric bounds for the treatment e¤ect across a range of assump- tions for the pattern of attrition following Horowitz and Manski (2000) and Lee (2002). 11 to the particular treatment group. For all business outcome and performance mea- sures (e.g., weekly revenues or keeping business and personal accounts separate), the sample is restricted to only those individuals who report owning a business, so answers to these questions are well de…ned. The rate of business ownership is 78.1% and does not di¤er signi…cantly across the various treatment groups. Stan- dard errors are clustered at the barrio level, to account for community-level shocks to business conditions. While covariates were speci…ed in advance of …nal data collection, we also estimate the simple cell means regression, E B yi = + T reati + yi + "i , (2) to verify that the choice of covariates is not a¤ecting parameter estimates. We test for heterogeneous treatment e¤ects with respect to education, business type, loan type (individual or group), and prior interest in training re-estimating equation (1) while restricting the sample in turn to each of the partitioning sub- groups. Each of these subgroups was speci…ed in the analysis plan before the endline data was collected. Because follow-up for the treated participants was assigned conditional on attending the …rst class, we estimate the e¤ect of the follow-up with the following speci…cation, restricting the sample to only those participants who were randomly assigned to one of the follow-up conditions: E B yi = + F ollowi + Xi + yi + "i , (3) where F ollowi is an indicator for assignment to either the intensive or interme- diate follow-up. To assess the possibility that the act of training personnel visiting participants a¤ected outcomes independent of training content, we also estimate (3) for those assigned to the placebo follow-up. We also estimate the e¤ect of treatment on the treated by estimating the equation, E B yi = + AttendAnyi + Xi + yi + "i , (4) where AttendAnyi is an indicator for whether individual i attended any of the training classes. Because attendance is endogenous, we instrument for attendance in (4) with assignment to the treatment. While we focus on a few key business practice and performance outcomes, we consider the e¤ect of training of 38 distinct outcomes. Because testing multiple outcomes independently increases the probability that we will reject at least one 12 outcome, we follow Kling, Liebman, and Katz (2007) and Karlan and Valdivia (2010) in constructing summary measures of standardized treatment e¤ects for four classes of outcomes: business practices, business performance, personal out- comes, and personal …nancial practices. Within each category, we rescale each outcome such that larger values indicate better values for the individual or busi- ness and convert each measure to a z-score such that zki = (yki k )= k , where and are the mean and standard deviation of yk for the control group. For each P category, we then construct a summary measure zi = k zki =k. We then estimate equation (1) for each of the four categories in order to test whether the training treatments a¤ected the set of outcomes within the category. We then estimate ziE = + T reati + Xi + ziB + "i : (5) Self-reporting bias raises concerns about our measures of business management practices. Treated individuals may, for example, report maintaining separate busi- ness and personal accounts because they were told this was important and not because they actually do so. To allay such concerns, we construct an objective index of …nancial reporting errors. We classify as an error any report of (i) bad period sales greater than average or good, (ii) average period sales better than good, or (iii) average period pro…ts better than good period sales for each of daily, weekly and monthly reported outcomes. In the baseline, 45% of subjects make at least one mistake and 11% make three or more. We then estimate the e¤ect of each treatment on reporting errors following equation (1). We also consider the interaction of education and training, estimating E B yi = + T reati + 2 HighEdi + 3 T reati HighEdi + Xi + yi + "i , (6) where HighEdi is an indicator for whether or not individual i completed high school or better and the coe¢ cient 3 re‡ ects whether more highly educated sub- jects respond di¤erentially to the treatment. Finally, although attrition in our sample was relatively low (13%), we follow Lee (2002) in constructing non-parametric bounds on the category aggregate treatment e¤ects using a range of assumptions for the pattern of attrition. To compute lower bounds, we assign to all those who attrited from the treatment group the mean value of the non-attritors minus some faction of the standard deviation for the group. For all those who attrited from the control group, we assign an outcome equal to the mean value of the non-attritors from the control group plus some 13 faction of the reported standard deviation. We then estimate equation (1) on the imputed values for missing observations. Upper bounds on the treatment e¤ect are computed following the same procedure, mutatis mutandis. 5 Results Table 2 demonstrates a clear pattern of selection into training. Conditional on assignment to the treatment group, those who attend are more well educated (high school graduates are 10 percentage points more likely to attend). They are also more likely to have expressed an interest in accounting training during the baseline survey; however, a prior interest in increasing savings or improving cash manage- ment is not associated with increased attendance. They also tend to have lower revenues but bigger plans, as measured by the share of the loan intended for …xed asset purchases. Attendance does not vary with individuals'business type. Inter- : estingly, we see some evidence of the reverse of an "Ashenfelter dip" individuals reporting that their business had improved in the month preceding the baseline survey were 6.4 percentage points more likely to attend the training. These results underline the importance of using an intent to treat design as discussed above. Table 3 presents the e¤ect of each training program on business practices and performance. Assignment to the rule-of-thumb training substantially increases the likelihood that individuals report separating business and personal cash and accounts, keep accounting records, and calculate revenues formally. Each of these measures increases by 6% to 12% relative to the control group, which did not receive training, and all estimates are signi…cant at the 5%-level or better. In contrast, we …nd no statistically signi…cant e¤ects on the business practices of those assigned to the Accounting treatment. Individuals assigned to the Rule-of-Thumb treatment report a substantial in- crease in revenues during bad weeks. This increase of RD$967 is economically large, 25% of mean endline reports and nearly 60% of the median, and signi…cant at the 5%-level. As is shown in columns 5 and 6 of Table 3, those assigned to the Rule-of-Thumb training also reported higher revenues in both average weeks and the immediately preceding week; however, neither result is statistically sig- ni…cant. These results should be interpreted with some caution. As noted, indi- viduals assigned to the Rule-of-Thumb training reported lower revenues in these periods than those assigned to the control group. These di¤erences in baseline characteristics are not signi…cant at conventional levels; however, the treatment e¤ect is insigni…cant when the controls for baseline revenues are dropped. With 14 this caveat in mind, these results parallel those of Karlan and Valdivia (2010) and Berge, Bjorvatn, and Tungodden (2010), both of which …nd revenue improvements in bad periods. The …ndings remain consistent with the possibility that e¤ective training may operate by helping individuals to better manage negative shocks or by alerting them to such shocks such that they can counteract the e¤ect of slow weeks. There are no discernible e¤ects of the accounting program on revenues. We do not …nd an impact of either program on total …rm expenses. How- ever, as shown in Table 3 and consistent with De Mel, McKenzie, and Woodru¤ (2009), standard errors for the estimates are large. As a result, we cannot rule out economically large impacts, either positive or negative. Table 4 describes the e¤ects of training on institutional outcomes. The Ac- counting treatment had no discernible e¤ects on loan size, loan type, savings, or dropout. Those assigned to the Rule-of-Thumb treatment are approximately 6% more likely to save, with the result marginally signi…cant. Point estimates for e¤ect of training on their savings in the month immediately prior to the endline survey are large— an increase of RD$829 or nearly 20% of the endline mean— but not statistically signi…cant. There is no evidence that the Rule-of-Thumb training causes any other changes in institutional outcomes. In Tables 5 and 6 we now want to test whether there are heterogeneous treat- ment e¤ects for di¤erent subgroups of the population. In particular we focus on four dimensions: (1) we di¤erentiate participants with high school education or above from those with less education in order to test whether the e¤ectiveness of training depends on the participants schooling level; (2) we compare …rms that are predominantly in trade (buying and selling of goods) versus small manufacturing and services since the former businesses might show results more quickly due to the faster working capital cycle in these …rms; (3) we compare participants who have group loans versus individual loans since one might be concerned that the di¤erence in the structure of these two loan groups could interact with the e¤ec- tiveness of training; (4) we compare individuals in the lower and upper quartiles of baseline business management practices. Table 5 reports the impact of the Rule-of-Thumb training for these di¤erent subgroups while Table 6 repeats the regressions for the accounting training. Each of the cells in these tables reports the coe¢ cient on the treatment dummy in sep- arate regressions for the outcome variables indicated. In the …rst two columns of Table 5 we compare the impact of the Rule-of-Thumb treatment when splitting the sample into clients with at least a high school education and those who com- pleted less than high school. The treatment had a larger e¤ect on more educated 15 clients'likelihood to separate business and personal cash and likelihood to save, but otherwise there is not a consistent di¤erence in the treatment e¤ect between these two groups. The Rule-of-Thumb treatment had positive e¤ects on both groups. In columns 3 and 4 we split the sample into trading businesses (buy and sell) versus others. There is some suggestive evidence that the Rule-of-Thumb training had a larger e¤ect on trading businesses; however, only the di¤erence in savings rates is signi…cant at conventional levels, and the aggregate di¤erence is inconclusive. Similarly, and in contrast to the expectations, columns 5 and 6 demonstrate that treatment e¤ects are nearly identical for group versus individual borrowers. We …nd a heterogeneous interaction of the Rule-of-Thumb treatment and prior interest in training across various business and personal …nancial practice measures— with individuals demonstrating a prior interest exhibiting a substan- tially larger response on some dimensions (e.g., setting aside cash for business expenditures) and a lower response on others (e.g., separating accounts or keeping accounting records). Point estimates for the impact on sales and savings are also strongest for those expressing less interest in training, but these di¤erences are not statistically signi…cant. In contrast, the accounting training does appear to have a greater bene…t on those who expressed a prior interest in training, with those who expressed interest in the baseline improving on the aggregate measure of business practices by 0.16 standard deviations relative to no improvement for those who did not. This stands in contrast to the results of Karlan and Valdivia (2010). We hypothesize that this di¤erence stems from the voluntary nature of s ADOPEM' training program— individuals who were not su¢ ciently interested in training could opt out at any time— versus the mandatory program studied by Karlan and Valdivia. It suggests that in certain circumstances the price mecha- nism may e¤ectively allocate training programs. Columns 9 and 10 show that the Rule-of-Thumb training had a substantially larger impact on businesses with the worst management practices in the baseline. Those beginning in the lowest quartile improved by 0.20 standard deviations in their aggregate measure of business practices relative to a modest improvement for those beginning in the top quartile. There is no distinguishable di¤erence across the quartiles for those receiving the accounting training. In Table 6 we now repeat the exact same set of regressions for the di¤erent subsamples as in Table 5 but for the sample of participants who received the accounting training. Parallel to the overall results reported in Table 3 we do not …nd a signi…cant impact of the Accounting treatment on the di¤erent subgroups of clients and their outcomes. However, there is one notable exception: Less educated 16 clients seem to experience a signi…cant drop in their weekly sales as measured by "last week sales" and also when asked about their "sales in a bad week" The . e¤ect is substantial, 0.2 standard deviations from the baseline reported value. This result is quite surprising but could be driven by several di¤erent channels besides a causal e¤ect of lower sales from accounting training. We conjecture that one possible interpretation for this …nding is that clients either are more realistic about their actual sales once they went through the training while prior to the training they might have in‡ ated the number. Table 7 reports the impact of follow-up visits, conditional upon attending the …rst class, at which follow-up treatments were randomly assigned. Overall we do not …nd evidence of any positive impact from these visits. The follow-up visits do not reinforce the positive level e¤ects we documented for the rule-of-thumb train- ing, nor do they seem to help clients who received the standard Accounting training to achieve better outcomes. Most of the coe¢ cient on the interaction of the level e¤ect with the intense follow dummy up are close to zero or estimated with large error. One interpretation of these results is that problems with implementation of the materials did not contribute to the lack of e¤ect for the Accounting training maybe because customers realized from the start that this material was not going to be useful for them. For the Rule-of-Thumb training we can conjecture that the material was simple enough that additional help with implementation through fol- low up visits were not needed (but also did not persuade any additional recipients to adopt the treatment). A less ‡ attering interpretation for us would be that the follow up visits themselves were not e¤ective and maybe more substantive hand holding might have been needed. However, we think an even more involved follow up may have been disruptive to the small business owners. Table 8 reports the e¤ects of the treatment on the treated for both the ac- counting and Rule-of-Thumb training according to equation (4). These estimates represent the Wald Estimator for the treatment e¤ect, e¤ectively rescaling the intention to treat e¤ect by the probability of attending the course conditional on assignment to the treatment. Consistent with the results reported in Table 3, we see large and statistically signi…cant e¤ects from the Rule-of-Thumb treatment on business practices and an economically and statistically signi…cant increase in reported sales in bad weeks. While the e¤ects of the accounting training lack statistical signi…cance, there is a consistent pattern of negative reported e¤ects on measures of sales performance. Table 9 reports the results for regression of standardized treatment e¤ects for each component and aggregate family totals grouped as business practices, 17 business performance, personal outcomes, and personal …nancial practices. As shown in the table, the Rule-of-Thumb training substantially improved aggregate measures of business and personal …nancial practice. While the e¤ect on aggregate business outcomes is not statistically signi…cant, the Rule-of-Thumb training did improve aggregate personal outcomes. Large increases in treated individuals' self-reported economic situation and their subjective economic situation relative their neighbors drive these results.13 There is no demonstrable e¤ect from the accounting training. Finally, we consider the e¤ect of both training programs on the objective mea- sure of …nancial reporting quality. Table 10 reports the results of estimating equations (1) and (6) where the outcome of interest is the index of reporting errors as described in the prior section. As shown in columns (3) and (4), the Rule-of-Thumb training reduced the incidence of reporting errors by 8 to 9 per- centage points relative. This e¤ect appears to be independent of education levels. In contrast, the main e¤ect of the accounting training shows little e¤ect; however, those individuals with at least a high school education who were assigned to the accounting training committed 16 percentage points fewer errors than the control group. This result suggests that even seemingly simple training programs may require relatively high levels of existing education to be e¤ective. In contrast, well-chosen, easily-learned rules of thumb appear to be more robust and more likely to be followed. Table 11 reports the results of bounds estimation on the treatment e¤ect for the Rule-of-Thumb training. While the bounds span a large range of potential e¤ects, the estimated e¤ect on business practices is quite robust. Even with the relatively severe assumption that those attriting from the treatment group are 0.25 standard deviations below the mean and those attriting from the control group are 0.25 standard deviations above, we still …nd a signi…cant, positive e¤ect from the Rule-of-Thumb training. 6 Conclusion The results from this study suggest that improved knowledge of …nance and …- nancial accounting indeed has a positive e¤ect on the management practices of small businesses in an emerging market such as the Dominican Republic. How- ever, we show that the impact of such training crucially depends on the form in 13 See appendix table A3 for detail. Tables A2 through A4 report the disaggregated elements for each component. 18 which …nancial literacy training is provided. In this setting, training that relies on the standard approach to small business training, teaching the fundamentals of …nancial accounting, had no measurable e¤ect. But the training program based on simple rules of thumb led to signi…cant improvements in the way businesses managed their …nances relative to the control group that was not o¤ered training. Businesses in the Rule-of-Thumb training were more likely to implement the ma- terial that was taught, keep accounting records, calculate monthly revenues and separate their business and home …nancial records. Improvements along these dimensions are on the order of ten percentage points. These changes in management practices translate into business outcomes. We …nd larger improvements for the group receiving the rule-of-thumb training com- pared to the group in the basic accounting training. In particular, we see a large increase in the level of sales during bad weeks— 30% for people in the rule-of- thumb-based training— and a substantial but not statistically signi…cant increase in average sales and an aggregate measure of business outcomes. We also …nd an economically large increase in savings of 6% for the rule-of-thumb training, but the result is only signi…cant at the 10%-level. In contrast the basic accounting training produces no signi…cant e¤ects. Based on these …ndings, it appears that signi…cant gains could be made by simplifying training programs and relying more on easy-to– implement, practical "rules of thumb." On a day-to-day basis, the rule-of-thumb-based approach per- forms better than teaching accounting and …nance from …rst principles. However, more research is needed to investigate how the results generalize and how rules of thumb can be optimized for maximum impact and adjusted to the level of experi- ence and expectation of di¤erent types of business owners. 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Borrower Characteristics Age 1,189 40.2 40.1 40.7 0.58 40.0 -0.08 (10.4) (10.5) (10.3) [0.44] (10.5) [0.92] Female 1,193 0.90 0.90 0.90 0.00 0.90 0.01 (0.30) (0.30) (0.30) [0.86] (0.30) [0.75] Number of Children 1,193 2.9 2.9 3.1 0.17 2.9 0.00 (1.7) (1.7) (1.8) [0.17] (1.7) [0.98] Any Savings 1,193 0.66 0.68 0.62 -0.06 0.68 -0.01 (0.47) (0.47) (0.49) [0.08] (0.47) [0.85] High school education or more 1,193 0.35 0.37 0.36 -0.01 0.33 -0.04 (0.48) (0.48) (0.48) [0.69] (0.47) [0.27] Expressed interest in financial training 1,193 0.63 0.65 0.59 -0.06 0.65 0.00 (0.48) (0.48) (0.49) [0.09] (0.48) [0.99] Sales and trading business 1,193 0.50 0.48 0.50 0.02 0.52 0.04 (0.50) (0.50) (0.50) [0.49] (0.50) [0.27] B. Loan Characteristics Individual loan 1,183 0.61 0.61 0.60 0.00 0.62 0.01 (0.49) (0.49) (0.49) [0.89] (0.49) [0.70] Amount of last ADOPEM loan 1,191 26,514 26,702 26,500 -202 26,349 -353 (17,411) (18,126) (17,366) [0.87] (16,790) [0.78] C. Sales Performance, $RD Weekly Average 972 6,591 6,855 6,791 -64 6,133 -722 (10,719) (11,087) (11,737) [0.94] (9,199) [0.37] Last Week 940 5,317 5,923 5,264 -659 4,760 -1163 (9,804) (10,480) (10,085) [0.42] (8,742) [0.13] Good Week 961 8,111 8,188 8,254 66 7,886 -302 (13,765) (13,980) (14,344) [0.95] (12,962) [0.78] Bad Week 960 3,730 4,275 3,708 -567 3,207 -1067 (8,253) (10,588) (7,735) [0.44] (5,701) [0.11] D. Business Practices Sep. business and personal cash 1,159 0.74 0.75 0.74 -0.01 0.72 -0.03 (0.44) (0.43) (0.44) [0.82] (0.45) [0.30] Keep accounting records 1,163 0.66 0.68 0.61 -0.07 0.68 0.00 (0.47) (0.47) (0.49) [0.05] (0.47) [0.95] Sep. business and personal acct. 1,160 0.53 0.56 0.50 -0.07 0.54 -0.02 (0.50) (0.50) (0.50) [0.07] (0.50) [0.51] Calculate revenues formally 1,161 0.80 0.80 0.82 0.02 0.79 -0.01 (0.40) (0.40) (0.39) [0.50] (0.41) [0.82] Observations 1,193 387 402 404 Notes: This table presents summary statistics based on baseline survey data. Standard errors of variables appear in parenthesis and p-values for differences of means appear in square brackets. Section 3 describes both treatment groups, columns (4) and (6), in detail. Table 2: Determinants of Attendance Attend any class/a Female 0.023 (0.066) Number of children 0.029** (0.012) Any savings 0.026 (0.042) High school education or more 0.092** (0.043) Index of spending behavior/b -0.163*** (0.049) Interested in accounting training/c 0.080** (0.039) Interested in saving more/c -0.045 (0.050) Interested in cash mgmt./c 0.047 (0.052) Current loan (0000) -0.001 (0.013) Planned loan amount (0000) 0.000 (0.005) Loan planned for fixed assets (0000) 0.025** (0.012) Weekly Average, Sales (0000) -0.044* (0.023) Aggregate business practice measures/b -0.039 (0.039) Buy-sell business in baseline 0.003 (0.040) Reports business improving 0.064** (0.027) Constant 0.287*** (0.089) N 653 Notes: /aOLS regression of attending any class on the dependent variables indicated, conditional on treatment assignment. * Denotes significance at the 10%-level, ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Aggregate z-score indices. Index of spending behavior based on gambling, regretting purchase decisions, buying from door-to- door vendors, meals away from home, and spending on furniture. Higher scores indicate less spending discipline. Revenue measure based on aggregate of all reported revenue measures. Business practice measures detailed in table A1. /c Baseline reported interest in specific forms of training as indicated. Table 3: Impact of Training on Business Practices and Performance/a p-value for test of Accounting Rule of Thumb equality/c Any Treatment Control Treatment Incl. Treatment Incl. Treatment Incl. Treatment Incl. Obs. Mean Only Covariates/b Only Covariates /b Only Covariates /b Only Covariates /b (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Business and Personal Financial Practices Sep. business and personal cash 794 0.56 0.00 0.00 0.08*** 0.08*** 0.010 0.013 0.04 0.04 (0.50) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) Keep accounting records 795 0.46 0.04 0.04 0.11*** 0.11*** 0.128 0.095 0.08** 0.08** (0.50) (0.05) (0.05) (0.03) (0.03) (0.04) (0.04) Sep. business and personal acct. 792 0.40 0.04 0.04 0.11*** 0.11*** 0.141 0.103 0.08** 0.08** (0.49) (0.05) (0.05) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) Set aside cash for business exp. 794 0.39 0.07** 0.07** 0.12*** 0.12*** 0.161 0.170 0.10*** 0.10*** (0.49) (0.03) (0.03) (0.04) (0.04) (0.03) (0.03) Calculate revenues formally 795 0.57 0.02 0.02 0.06** 0.06** 0.211 0.235 0.04 0.04 (0.50) (0.04) (0.04) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) /d Aggregate business practices 804 -0.04 0.07 0.07 0.14*** 0.15*** 0.193 0.163 0.11*** 0.11*** (0.60) (0.05) (0.06) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) Business Performance /e Weekly Average, Sales 571 8,711 -582 -685 566 450 0.264 0.276 21 -92 (11,710) (794) (808) (886) (865) (669) (657) Last Week, Sales/e 507 6,880 -970 -1,017 412 408 0.037 0.039 -258 -286 (10,229) (645) (640) (799) (779) (641) (620) Good Week, Sales/e 568 10,219 -839 -833 28 -59 0.391 0.409 -393 -433 (13,647) (930) (948) (955) (891) (791) (785) Bad Week, Sales/e 551 5,232 -669 -660 967* 979* 0.003 0.002 176 190 (7,880) (507) (514) (523) (524) (438) (451) Weekly expenses/e 497 3,192 -68 -153 184 228 0.732 0.584 57 37 (6,422) (758) (720) (733) (698) (650) (619) Notes: /a Each coefficient reported in the table is from a separate regression of the form described in equation (1) for columns (3) and (6) and equation (2) for columns (2) and (5). Standard errors, clustered at the barrio- level, in parentheses. Regression includes only those individuals with own business. * Denotes significance at the 10%-level, ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Covariates include variables used for stratification: business types, loan size, and participation in an ADOPEM savings account. /c p-value for F-test of equality of Accounting and Rule of Thumb treatment effect coefficients. /d Aggregate is unweighted sum of z-scores for all business practices as detailed in Table A1. /e Variable winsorized at 1%. Table 4: Impact of Training on Institutional Outcomes/a p-value for test of Accounting Rule of Thumb equality/c Any Treatment Control Treatment Incl. Treatment Incl. Treatment Incl. Treatment Incl. Obs. Mean Only Covariates/b Only Covariates/b Only Covariates/b Only Covariates/b (1) (2) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) Loan size, $RD 1,027 36,572 -447 -377 824 593 0.353 0.386 186 105 (25,439) (1,035) (937) (1,429) (1,331) (1,040) (1,001) Any savings 1,030 0.53 0.01 0.01 0.06 0.06 0.141 0.127 0.03 0.03 (0.50) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) (0.03) (0.03) /c Savings last month, $RD 977 1,755 276 285 829 869 0.342 0.323 552 576 (6,808) (508) (517) (572) (581) (458) (466) Individual loan 1,020 0.61 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.770 0.847 0.00 0.01 (0.49) (0.02) (0.02) (0.03) (0.03) (0.02) (0.02) Dropout/d 1,191 0.46 0.02 0.01 0.05 0.04 0.508 0.527 0.03 0.03 (0.50) (0.05) (0.05) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) Notes: /a Each coefficient reported in the table is from a separate regression of the form described in equation in equation (1) for columns (3) and (6) and equation (2) for columns (2) and (5). Baseline level of dependent variable excluded for dropout regression. Standard errors, clustered at the barrio-level, in parentheses. * Denotes significance at the 10%-level, ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Covariates include variables used for stratification: business types, loan size, and participation in an ADOPEM savings account. /c Results reflect OLS regression of savings amount on treatment indicator, unconditional on any savings. Results of CLAD and Tobit regressions are not significant at the 10%-level. /d No loans taken in prior twelve months. Table 5: Impact of Rule of Thumb Training, by Subgroup/a Education level/b Business Type Loan Type, Baseline Prior Interest in Training Baseline Bus. Prac Low High Buy-Sell/b Other Group Indiv. Yes No <25th Pctle >75th Pctile (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Business and Personal Financial Practices Sep. business and personal cash/c 0.06 0.12** 0.05* 0.12* 0.08* 0.08** 0.08* 0.09* 0.15* -0.01 (0.04) (0.05) (0.03) (0.07) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) (0.09) (0.04) Keep accounting records/c 0.11*** 0.11 0.10*** 0.12** 0.11* 0.10** 0.08 0.14** 0.12* 0.07 (0.04) (0.08) (0.03) (0.06) (0.06) (0.05) (0.05) (0.06) (0.07) (0.06) Sep. business and personal acct./c 0.11*** 0.11* 0.09** 0.14** 0.15** 0.09* 0.06 0.16*** 0.11 0.05 (0.04) (0.06) (0.04) (0.06) (0.07) (0.05) (0.05) (0.05) (0.07) (0.06) Set aside cash for business exp./c 0.11** 0.15** 0.09* 0.16*** 0.06 0.14*** 0.19*** 0.06 0.25*** 0.04 (0.04) (0.07) (0.05) (0.06) (0.07) (0.04) (0.05) (0.05) (0.06) (0.07) Calculate revenues formally/c 0.09** 0.02 0.09** 0.02 0.08* 0.06 0.07 0.06 0.06 0.02 (0.04) (0.06) (0.04) (0.06) (0.04) (0.04) (0.04) (0.05) (0.07) (0.06) Aggregate business practices/c 0.16*** 0.10 0.14*** 0.15** 0.12** 0.15*** 0.17*** 0.12* 0.20** 0.05 (0.05) (0.07) (0.04) (0.07) (0.06) (0.06) (0.04) (0.06) (0.08) (0.06) Any savings 0.01 0.15** 0.05 0.07 0.05 0.07 0.04 0.08 0.09 0.06 (0.05) (0.07) (0.06) (0.05) (0.05) (0.05) (0.06) (0.05) (0.07) (0.07) Savings amount, $RD/e 1,825 4,470 -692 5,270 1,813 1,690 -2,258 4,757 1,843 5,184 (3,100) (5,615) (3,498) (4,534) (2,476) (3,499) (2,709) (4,129) (4,190) (8,026) Business Performance Total number of employees/c -0.28*** 0.27* -0.03 -0.07 0.08 -0.11 -0.01 -0.09 -0.22 0.04 (0.10) (0.16) (0.11) (0.17) (0.13) (0.12) (0.11) (0.15) (0.17) (0.21) Weekly Average, Sales/c/d 741 -143 732 215 -1,955 1,837 578 539 359 1,273 (1,173) (1,571) (1,328) (1,118) (1,236) (1,118) (1,094) (1,512) (1,869) (1,315) Last Week, Sales/c/d -387 931 -57 906 -990 1,102 -110 873 -1,517 1,817 (1,037) (1,544) (1,052) (1,317) (1,223) (928) (694) (1,437) (2,344) (1,814) Good Week, Sales /c/d 236 -664 295 -244 -1,212 728 -345 426 -579 1,704 (1,278) (1,601) (1,168) (1,220) (1,484) (1,133) (1,111) (1,571) (1,723) (1,482) Bad Week, Sales/c/d 563 1,281 1,018 857 -808 1,845*** 853 1,066 -75 1,161 (614) (1,128) (678) (972) (901) (667) (723) (974) (1,188) (1,312) Notes: /a Each coefficient reported in the table is from a separate regression of the form described in equation (1). Standard errors, clustered at the barrio-level, in parentheses. * Denotes significance at the 10%-level, ** at the 5%- level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Education subgroups separated by high school or above (High) or less than high school (Low); trading business or other type of business; and participation in individual or group loan in baseline. /c Regression includes only those individuals with own business. /d Variable winsorized at 1%. /e Results reflect OLS regression of savings amount on treatment indicator, unconditional on any savings. Results of CLAD and Tobit regressions are not significant at the 10%-level. Table 6: Impact of Accounting Training, by Subgroup/a Education level/b Business Type Loan Type, Baseline Prior Interest in Training Baseline Bus. Prac Low High Buy-Sell/b Other Group Indiv. Yes No <25th Pctle >75th Pctile (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Business and Personal Financial Practices Sep. business and personal cash/c -0.02 0.03 -0.01 0.01 -0.03 0.02 0.05 -0.05 0.02 -0.11* (0.05) (0.05) (0.04) (0.06) (0.06) (0.04) (0.04) (0.05) (0.08) (0.06) /c Keep accounting records 0.04 0.05 0.08 -0.02 0.12** 0.00 0.06 0.03 -0.01 0.00 (0.05) (0.11) (0.05) (0.08) (0.06) (0.06) (0.08) (0.06) (0.07) (0.10) Sep. business and personal acct./c 0.04 0.04 0.05 0.03 0.08 0.02 0.09 0.01 -0.03 -0.13 (0.04) (0.09) (0.06) (0.07) (0.06) (0.06) (0.07) (0.05) (0.07) (0.10) Set aside cash for business exp./c 0.06 0.09 0.05 0.09* 0.01 0.09** 0.11** 0.04 0.07 -0.04 (0.05) (0.06) (0.05) (0.05) (0.06) (0.04) (0.04) (0.05) (0.07) (0.07) Calculate revenues formally/c 0.02 0.01 0.11*** -0.10 0.05 0.00 0.06 -0.01 -0.05 0.00 (0.04) (0.07) (0.03) (0.07) (0.05) (0.05) (0.04) (0.06) (0.06) (0.06) Aggregate business practices/c 0.07 0.09 0.13** 0.00 0.11* 0.05 0.16** 0.00 -0.03 -0.08 (0.04) (0.12) (0.05) (0.08) (0.06) (0.07) (0.07) (0.06) (0.07) (0.09) Any savings -0.03 0.07 0.03 -0.03 0.00 0.02 -0.01 0.03 -0.11 -0.06 (0.05) (0.07) (0.05) (0.05) (0.05) (0.06) (0.06) (0.05) (0.07) (0.08) Savings amount, $RD/e 2,213 2,734 -3,509 9,137 -2,288 5,520 4,484 -1,111 -4,242 -3,575 (7,233) (4,836) (3,204) (11,533) (2,781) (8,404) (8,369) (4,308) (2,818) (6,703) Business Performance /c Total number of employees -0.16* 0.47** 0.12 0.01 0.10 0.06 0.23 -0.04 -0.19 -0.07 (0.09) (0.20) (0.12) (0.14) (0.19) (0.11) (0.17) (0.15) (0.18) (0.21) Weekly Average, Sales/c/d -821 -548 -265 -963 253 -821 1,710 -2,360** -3,128** 2,098 (1,019) (1,707) (992) (1,295) (1,862) (1,021) (1,519) (1,181) (1,302) (1,755) Last Week, Sales/c/d -1,749** -175 -918 -895 -96 -1,538* -256 -1,507 -4,303** -1,076 (765) (1,335) (653) (1,005) (1,291) (787) (666) (1,046) (1,767) (948) Good Week, Sales /c/d -1,945 1,046 -1,177 -474 1,228 -1,462 -1,414 -641 -2,235 1,672 (1,279) (2,004) (1,241) (1,606) (1,869) (1,092) (1,340) (1,564) (1,628) (1,743) Bad Week, Sales/c/d -1,381** 380 -527 -876 28 -1,037* -337 -678 -2,815** -777 (543) (1,068) (670) (744) (1,058) (617) (701) (801) (1,183) (996) Notes: /a Each coefficient reported in the table is from a separate regression of the form described in equation (1). Standard errors, clustered at the barrio-level, in parentheses. * Denotes significance at the 10%-level, ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Education subgroups separated by high school or above (High) or less than high school (Low); trading business or other type of business; and participation in individual or group loan in baseline. /c Regression includes only those individuals with own business. /d Variable winsorized at 1%. /e Results reflect OLS regression of savings amount on treatment indicator, unconditional on any savings. Results of CLAD and Tobit regressions are not significant at the 10%-level. Table 7: Impact of Training on Business Practices and Performance, by Intensity Conditional on Attending First Class Accounting Rule of Thumb Intense/a Intense/a (1) (2) Business and Personal Financial Practices /c Sep. business and personal cash /d 0.06 -0.11 (0.09) (0.07) Keep accounting records/d -0.03 0.00 (0.09) (0.09) Sep. business and personal acct. /d -0.05 -0.06 (0.09) (0.08) Calculate revenues formally/d -0.11* 0.07 (0.06) (0.09) Has employees/d 0.07 -0.04 (0.07) (0.07) Any savings 0.07 -0.18** (0.07) (0.09) Savings amount, $RD/f 524 -7,721 (6,255) (5,515) Dropout/g -0.06 -0.06 (0.09) (0.10) Business Performance Total number of employees/d -0.19 0.07 (0.29) (0.25) Weekly Average, Sales/d/e 349 2,477 (1,306) (2,148) Last Week, Sales/d/e 567 1,344 (1,187) (1,654) Good Week, Sales/d/e 1,537 -621 (1,715) (2,184) Bad Week, Sales/d/e 1,024 1,767 (712) (1,432) Notes: /a Values in each row in each set of basic and intense columns (e.g., (1) and (2)) represent the coefficients from a regression of the form y = α + β 1 i,E x Intensity + γ x yi,B + εi as shown in equation (3). Sample restricted to those attending first class, where intensity was assigned. Intensity is an indicator for additional training follow up visits, as described in Section 4. Standard errors, clustered at the barrio-level, in parentheses. * Denotes significance at the 10%-level, ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Low education is defined as less than high school. High education includes completing high school or greater. /c See section 3 for detailed description of treatments. /d Regression includes only those individuals reporting own business in baseline survey. /e Variable winsorized at 1%. /f Results reflect OLS regression of savings amount on treatment indicator, unconditional on any savings. Results of CLAD and Tobit regressions are not significant at the 10%-level. /g No loans taken in prior twelve months. Table 8: Impact of Training on Business Practices and Performance Treatment on the Treated/a/b Accounting Rule of Thumb Any Treatment Treatment Incl. Treatment Incl. Treatment Incl. Obs. Only Covariates/b Only Covariates/b Only Covariates/b (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) Business and Personal Financial Practices Sep. business and personal cash 794 0.00 -0.01 0.17** 0.17** 0.08 0.08 (0.06) (0.06) (0.07) (0.07) (0.05) (0.05) Keep accounting records 795 0.08 0.07 0.23*** 0.23*** 0.15** 0.15** (0.10) (0.10) (0.06) (0.06) (0.07) (0.07) Sep. business and personal acct. 792 0.08 0.07 0.24*** 0.24*** 0.16** 0.15** (0.10) (0.10) (0.06) (0.06) (0.06) (0.07) Calculate revenues formally 795 0.03 0.03 0.13** 0.13** 0.08 0.08 (0.07) (0.07) (0.06) (0.06) (0.05) (0.06) Has employees 794 0.05 0.06 -0.07 -0.06 -0.01 0.00 (0.07) (0.07) (0.10) (0.09) (0.06) (0.07) Total number of employees 794 0.14 0.13 -0.11 -0.07 0.02 0.03 (0.17) (0.17) (0.19) (0.19) (0.13) (0.13) Business Performance Weekly Average, Sales/c 571 -1,138 -1,341 1,201 973 43 -188 (1,522) (1,538) (1,893) (1,854) (1,358) (1,323) Last Week, Sales/c 507 -1,826 -1,920 817 815 -498 -552 (1,219) (1,223) (1,567) (1,526) (1,225) (1,183) Good Week, Sales/c 568 -1,600 -1,583 57 -115 -780 -857 (1,758) (1,792) (1,956) (1,824) (1,566) (1,547) Bad Week, Sales/c 551 -1,293 -1,284 2,045* 2,086* 357 382 (955) (967) (1,131) (1,123) (887) (900) /a Each coefficient reported in the table is from a separate regression of the form described in equation (4), instrumenting attendance with assignment to the treatment. No individuals assigned to the control group attended training sessions. Standard errors, clustered at the barrio-level, in parentheses. * Denotes significance at the 10%-level, ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Covariates include variables used for stratification: business types, loan size, and participation in an ADOPEM savings account. /c Variable winsorized at 1%. Table 9: Standardized Treatment Effects Business Practices Rule of Any Accounting Thumb Treatment (1) (2) (3) Aggregate business practices 0.07 0.15*** 0.11*** (0.06) (0.04) (0.04) Aggregate business outcomes -0.03 0.04 0.01 (0.03) (0.04) (0.03) Aggregate personal outcomes 0.00 0.06** 0.03 (0.03) (0.03) (0.02) Aggregate personal financial practices 0.04 0.05* 0.05 (0.04) (0.03) (0.03) Notes: /aEach coefficient reported in the table is from a separate regression of the form described in equation (5). Covariates include variables used for stratification: business types, loan size, and participation in an ADOPEM savings account. All measures converted to standardized z-scores and scaled such that positive values indicate desirable outcomes, as described in text. Aggregates based on unweighted sum of all components, as detailed in tables A1 to A4. Standard errors, clustered at the barrio-level, in parentheses. * Denotes significance at the 10%-level, ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. Table 10: Impact of Training on Reporting Quality Accounting Rule of Thumb Any Treatment (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) /b Dependent Variable: Any Reporting Errors Treatment -0.03 0.02 -0.09*** -0.08* -0.06* -0.03 (0.04) (0.06) (0.03) (0.04) (0.03) (0.04) High Education 0.02 0.02 0.02 (0.07) (0.07) (0.07) Interaction -0.16 -0.02 -0.09 (0.10) (0.09) (0.09) Observations 804 804 804 804 804 804 Notes: /aValues in columns (1) and (3) and columns (2) and (4) are from a single regression. High Education is an indicator equal to 1 if the individual has a high school education or better. Includes only those individuals reporting own business. Standard errors, clustered at the barrio-level, in parentheses. * Denotes significance at the 10%-level, , ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Error defined as reporting bad period revenues better than average or good period; average period revenues better than good; or average profits greater than good period revenues. Table 11: Bounds estimates for standardized treatment effects Rule of Thumb Treatment Lower Bounds/a Unadjusted Upper Bounds/b Treatment 0.50 sd 0.25 sd 0.10 sd 0.05 sd Effect 0.05 sd 0.10 sd 0.25 sd 0.50 sd (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) Business practices 0.022 0.064 0.088 0.097 0.108 0.113 0.122 0.146 0.188 (0.036) (0.036) (0.036) (0.036) (0.042) (0.037) (0.037) (0.038) (0.039) Business outcomes -0.044 -0.005 0.019 0.026 0.040 0.042 0.050 0.073 0.113 (0.031) (0.031) (0.030) (0.030) (0.033) (0.030) (0.030) (0.031) (0.031) Personal outcomes -0.012 0.015 0.032 0.037 0.045 0.048 0.053 0.069 0.096 (0.022) (0.022) (0.022) (0.022) (0.025) (0.022) (0.022) (0.022) (0.023) Personal financial practices 0.003 0.030 0.046 0.051 0.052 0.062 0.067 0.083 0.110 (0.024) (0.025) (0.025) (0.026) (0.029) (0.026) (0.026) (0.027) (0.028) Notes: /aColumns (1) through (4) imputes attrited treatment group as mean of non-attrited treatment minus the indicated fraction of the standard deviation for the non-attrited treatment. Attrited control are imputed as mean of non-attrited control plus the indicated fraction of the standard deviation for the non-attrited control. /b Columns (6) through (9) imputes attrited treatment group as mean of non-attrited treatment plus the indicated fraction of the standard deviation for the non-attrited treatment. Attrited control are imputed as mean of non-attrited control minus the indicated fraction of the standard deviation for the non-attrited control. /c Covariates include variables used for stratification: business types, loan size, and participation in an ADOPEM savings account. All measures converted to standardized z-scores and scaled such that positive values indicate desirable outcomes, as described in text. Table A1: Summary of Training Programs Rule of Thumb Accounting Savings Same Class 1 ‐ Why we should save ‐ Set saving goals ‐ Save for emergencies ‐ Decide how to save ‐ Compare saving services ‐ Plan your future savings Consumption Same Class 2 ‐ Financial burden ‐ Study your income and expenses ‐ Plan your future expenses Debt Management Same Class 3 ‐ Why borrowing ‐ How much debt I can afford ‐ Default, what is it and how it happens ‐ Cost of default and excessive debt Account Separation Basic Accounting 1 Class 4 ‐ Why separate money for the household ‐ Relevance of Accounting from money for the business ‐ Estimating profits using itemized ‐ Separating house and business money records or cash accumulation ‐ Setting ourselves a salary ‐ How to keep records of flows between business and household Estimation Methods Basic Accounting 2 Class 5 ‐ Estimate total monthly flow of money ‐ Including personal income and between household and business expenses into the business daily ‐ Estimate increase/decrease of money records in the business between beginning and ‐ Using daily records to estimate daily end of the month profit ‐ Estimating profits ‐ Review estimating profits using itemized records or cash accumulation ‐ How to include fixed costs into the profit calculations None Basic Accounting 3 Class 6 ‐ Aggregating daily records into monthly records ‐ Estimating monthly profit ‐ Accounts payable record keeping ‐ Accounts receivable record keeping Table A2: Standardized Treatment Effects Business Practices Rule of Any Accounting Thumb Treatment (1) (2) (3) Keep accounting records 0.08 0.22*** 0.15** (0.11) (0.06) (0.07) Sep. business and personal acct. 0.07 0.23*** 0.15** (0.11) (0.06) (0.07) Sep. business and personal cash -0.01 0.16*** 0.08 (0.06) (0.06) (0.05) Plans cash needs 0.11 0.18** 0.15** (0.08) (0.07) (0.07) Set aside cash for business expenses 0.14** 0.24*** 0.19*** (0.06) (0.07) (0.06) Calculates profits 0.08 0.15** 0.12 (0.11) (0.06) (0.08) Keeps accounts for Acct Receivable 0.05 0.19*** 0.12* (0.10) (0.07) (0.07) Keeps accounts for Acct Payable 0.04 0.15** 0.09 (0.10) (0.07) (0.07) Keeps accounts for Expenses 0.11 0.17** 0.14** (0.09) (0.07) (0.07) Keeps accounts for Sales 0.13 0.06 0.09 (0.08) (0.07) (0.07) Keeps accounts for Inventory 0.06 -0.02 0.02 (0.08) (0.08) (0.07) Accuracy of financial reporting 0.07 0.19*** 0.13* (0.09) (0.07) (0.07) Aggregate business practices/b 0.07 0.15*** 0.11*** (0.06) (0.04) (0.04) Notes: /aEach coefficient reported in the table is from a separate regression of the form described in equation (5). Covariates include variables used for stratification: business types, loan size, and participation in an ADOPEM savings account. All measures converted to standardized z-scores and scaled such that positive values indicate desirable outcomes, as described in text. Standard errors, clustered at the barrio-level, in parentheses. * Denotes significance at the 10%- level, ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Aggregate value is unweighted sum of all individual measures. Table A3: Standardized Treatment Effects Business Performance Rule of Any Accounting Thumb Treatment (1) (2) (3) Sales last day/b -0.07 -0.03 -0.05 (0.06) (0.06) (0.05) /b Sales average day -0.04 0.03 0.00 (0.07) (0.08) (0.06) Sales last week/b -0.10 0.04 -0.03 (0.06) (0.08) (0.06) /b Sales average week -0.05 0.03 -0.01 (0.06) (0.07) (0.05) /b Sales good week -0.06 0.00 -0.03 (0.07) (0.06) (0.06) Sales bad week/b -0.08 0.12* 0.02 (0.07) (0.07) (0.06) /b Sales last month 0.05 0.05 0.05 (0.08) (0.06) (0.06) /b Sales average month -0.01 0.04 0.02 (0.08) (0.06) (0.06) Sales good month/b -0.04 0.02 -0.01 (0.07) (0.05) (0.05) /b Sales bad month -0.05 -0.01 -0.03 (0.09) (0.07) (0.07) Plan any innovation in business -0.14* -0.02 -0.08 (0.08) (0.08) (0.07) Total employees 0.05 -0.02 0.01 (0.06) (0.06) (0.04) Prefers own business to RD$10,000 salary/mo -0.02 -0.01 -0.01 (0.06) (0.05) (0.05) Aggregate business outcomes/c -0.03 0.04 0.01 (0.03) (0.04) (0.03) Notes: /aEach coefficient reported in the table is from a separate regression of the form described in equation (5). Covariates include variables used for stratification: business types, loan size, and participation in an ADOPEM savings account. All measures converted to standardized z-scores and scaled such that positive values indicate desirable outcomes, as described in text. Standard errors, clustered at the barrio-level, in parentheses. * Denotes significance at the 10%- level, ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Winsorized at 1%. /c Aggregate value is unweighted sum of all individual measures. Table A4: Standardized Treatment Effects Personal Outcomes Rule of Any Accounting Thumb Treatment (1) (2) (3) First child in school -0.12* -0.07 -0.09 (0.06) (0.10) (0.07) First child working -0.13* 0.07 -0.03 (0.07) (0.09) (0.07) Spending on furniture for home 0.10 0.13 0.11 (0.09) (0.09) (0.08) Owns home 0.12** -0.03 0.04 (0.05) (0.06) (0.05) Reports improving economic situation 0.03 0.12* 0.08 (0.08) (0.07) (0.07) Total savings/b -0.09 0.04 -0.03 (0.09) (0.07) (0.07) Dining out or eating meat -0.09 -0.01 -0.05 (0.08) (0.08) (0.07) Economic situation relative to neighbors 0.13* 0.16** 0.15*** (0.07) (0.07) (0.06) Aggregate personal outcomes/c 0.00 0.06** 0.03 (0.03) (0.03) (0.02) Notes: /aEach coefficient reported in the table is from a separate regression of the form described in equation (5). Covariates include variables used for stratification: business types, loan size, and participation in an ADOPEM savings account. All measures converted to standardized z-scores and scaled such that positive values indicate desirable outcomes, as described in text. Standard errors, clustered at the barrio-level, in parentheses. * Denotes significance at the 10%-level, ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Winsorized at 1%. /c Aggregate value is unweighted sum of all individual measures. Table A5: Standardized Treatment Effects Personal Financial Practices Rule of Any Accounting Thumb Treatment (1) (2) (3) Buy from door-to-door vendors 0.03 0.03 0.03 (0.11) (0.09) (0.09) Regret purchase decisions -0.01 -0.05 -0.03 (0.08) (0.09) (0.08) Save regularly 0.03 0.16* 0.10 (0.09) (0.08) (0.07) Amount saved last month 0.12 0.09 0.10 (0.14) (0.12) (0.11) Any gambling 0.13 0.05 0.09 (0.09) (0.08) (0.07) /b Use remittances for business purposes 0.05 0.15* 0.10 (0.07) (0.08) (0.06) Aggregate personal financial practices/c 0.04 0.05* 0.05 (0.04) (0.03) (0.03) Notes: /aEach coefficient reported in the table is from a separate regression of the form described in equation (5). Covariates include variables used for stratification: business types, loan size, and participation in an ADOPEM savings account. All measures converted to standardized z-scores and scaled such that positive values indicate desirable outcomes, as described in text. Standard errors, clustered at the barrio-level, in parentheses. * Denotes significance at the 10%-level, ** at the 5%-level, and *** at the 1% level. /b Baseline value not available. /c Aggregate value is unweighted sum of all individual measures.


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biographyDid You Know?
photo galleryquotesPete Mincey (Character)
from "The Riches" (2007)
Edit Credits- "The Riches"
- Friday Night Lights (2008) TV episode, Played by Arye Gross
- The Last Temptation of Wayne (2008) TV episode, Played by Arye Gross
- Waiting for Dogot (2007) TV episode, Played by Arye Gross
- It's a Wonderful Lie (2007) TV episode, Played by Arye Gross
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Pete Mincey: [on the phone] You don't understand, we're really great friends. I was best man at his wedding. You know, the second one.
Dahlia Malloy: [on the phone, pretending to be Jolinda] I hate to be the one to tell you this, Pete. But, Doug Rich was no real friend of yours.
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Search Results for "call codes"
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- National Radio Data
- United States and Canadian call sign/scanner frequency databases, Worldwide airport frequencies, FIPS codes, Mass Media searches for DXing and more!
[ Hits: 1583 | Votes: 7 | Rating: 7.29 ]
- DSCdecoder
- DSCdecoder decodes the DSC digital signals from ships and coast stations using the sound card in your PC. You need a suitable MF, HF or VHF band radio receiver tuned to one of the DSC distress and calling channels or to one of the Navtex channels
[ Hits: 4595 | Votes: 6 | Rating: 5.50 ]
Not satisfied ? Lookup Google Custom Search Engine for call codes


text: Amazon Local offers a $25 Uber Car Service Credit for free. That's the best such credit offer we've seen for this on-demand car service in more than a year. This credit is not valid for UberTAXI, and it can only be used by new Uber customers. Other conditions may apply. Deal ends February 5.


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Dallas Cowboys coaches fear firings
Ed WerderThere is concern internally that coach Jason Garrett and his entire coaching staff will be fired unless the Dallas Cowboys win the NFC East and reach the playoffs, a team source said.
Story | Conversation | December 22, 2013 -
Cowboys eyeing two special teams coaches
Ed WerderDallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and head coach Jason Garrett have interest in the two special teams coaches who were on opposite ends of The Music City Miracle -- Alan Lowry and Bruce DeHaven -- as potential replacements for Joe DeCamillis. Both ...
Blog | January 22, 2013 -
Monte Kiffin focus of Dallas Cowboys' search for defensive coordi...
Ed WerderDallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and coach Jason Garrett have focused their search for a defensive coordinator on longtime NFL assistant Monte Kiffin, according to team and league sources.
Story | Conversation | January 10, 2013 -
Josh Brent of Dallas Cowboys now barred from sidelines -- sources...
Ed WerderJosh Brent will not be permitted to be on the Dallas Cowboys' sideline the remainder of the season, team and league sources said Tuesday.
Story | Conversation | December 18, 2012 -
Jimmy Johnson: Jason Garrett 'has prepared himself well' to be Da...
Ed WerderJohnson, Aikman believe Jason Garrett can find success as coach of Cowboys.
Story | Conversation | November 11, 2010 -
Ed Werder: Eventually, somebody on the Dallas Cowboys sideline ha...
Ed WerderEvents have created question: Exactly who is in charge of what for Cowboys?
Story | Conversation | September 16, 2010


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Very pleased with our room cute,clean and quiet, at a good rate, and staff was very friendly. Breakfast was so so and a little on the late side for us since we are early risers...but hey it's a free breakfast. Internet is slow...but since your surrounded by a fabulous view of the mountains what can you expect? A little time... More
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Lawn Mower Parts and Lawn Equipment since 1982!
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AYP, Dixon, Poulan and Husqvarna have merged. AYP 539124292, Dixon 539124292, Poulan 539124292, and Husqvarna 539124292 are the same 4-1/2 B PULLEY.
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Regatta - Kids Warlock II Capri Trousers
Kids Warlock II Capri Trousers
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Dr. Tomas Holmlund, MD
Neurology, Dent Neurological Institute
- 3980 Sheridan Dr Tower A
Amherst, NY 14226 - 1 Office Location
- (716) 250-2000
Dr. Tomas Holmlund graduated from the Univ I Linkoping, Med Fak, Linkoping, Sweden in 1985. He works in Amherst, NY and specializes in Neurology. Dr. Holmlund is affiliated with Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital.
Gender: Male
Years in Practice: 30 Years
Languages Spoken: English
Medical School: Univ I Linkoping, Med Fak, Linkoping, Sweden
Graduation Date: 1985
Hospital Affiliations: Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital
Specialties: Neurology


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Runnion Equipment hires Scott DesJarlais
Runnion Equipment has hired Scott DesJarlais as outside sales representative in Wisconsin. In his new position, DesJarlais is responsible for new and used equipment sales in Wisconsin at Runnion Equipment.
"Scott has had a major impact on sales volume in the ... Read More...