A recent randomized experiment in Sri Lanka found very high returns to capital for male-owned microenterprises, but zero return to female microenterprises. We are replicating this experiment in Ghana, a country with high levels of female participation in self-employment, to see if the results generalize to a different cultural context. The project will also collect much more detailed information about gender roles and empowerment, and occupational choice to test between several explanations for low returns to female-owned enterprises.

The study is being conducted with 800 microenterprises, half male-owned and half female-owned. Half of these will be randomly given grants of 150 cedis (approximately $120), half in the form of cash grants and half as equipment for their enterprises.