Seminario de Economía "Learning to Grow from Peers: Experimental Evidence from Small-scale Retailers in an Emerging Market"
Jueves 13 de diciembre, 12.30h | Sala Principal
Abstract
This paper studies whether small-scale businesses can learn and adopt profitable idiosyncratic practices of their successful peers without direct peer interaction. We identify such practices through a detailed business survey in urban Indonesia and disseminate the information to a randomly selected sample of small retailers through a handbook tailored to their business culture. An orthogonal subgroup is invited to watch a documentary video on experiences of successful peers, and another is offered individualized help by local layman people trained on the implementation of the handbook. We find a significant increase in the adoption of profitable practices in all sub-groups of retailers, both six and eighteen months after the intervention. Moreover, while the handbook alone does not lead to significant performance gains, we find that the supplementary successful-peers documentary and individualized help significantly improve sales and profits. These findings show that business growth can be achieved through disseminating local knowledge in ways that are simple, cost effective and scalable.
Patricio Dalton
Patricio Dalton is an Associate Professor of Economics at Tilburg University. His research examines how biological, psychological and social factors influence decision-making, and how decisions affect welfare and economic development. Dalton’s theoretical work addresses the implications of bounded rationality for welfare economics and the link between aspirations and poverty. His experimental research has focused on the effect of poverty on productivity, preferences, cognitive functions and rationality. He has also studied the effect of goal setting on productivity and of unemployment benefits on labor supply.
Most recently, he has designed and conducted field experiments to understand the determinants of small-firm growth funded by a DFID Grant. In Kenya, he studies the effect of mobile money on firm performance. In Indonesia, he investigates how business skills can be learned from successful peers and in Ghana how goal setting can become an effective low-cost tool to help small-businesses grow.
Dalton holds a PhD in Economics from Warwick University.
Contacto: Cecilia Lafuente