Russell Toth

No Longer Trapped? Promoting Entrepreneurship Through Cash Transfers to Ultra-Poor Women in Northern Kenya

We examine the short‐to‐medium‐run impacts of the Rural Entrepreneur Access Program, a poverty graduation program that promotes entrepreneurship among ultra‐poor women in arid and semi‐arid northern Kenya, a context prone to poverty traps. The program relies on cash transfers (rather than asset transfers) in addition to business skills training, business mentoring, and savings. Participation in each of the programs three rounds was randomly determined through a public lottery. In the short‐to‐medium‐run, we find that the program has a positive and significant impact on income, savings, and asset accumulation, similar to more traditional poverty graduation programs that rely on asset transfers.