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THE WORLD BANK Turning Theses into Enterprises in Tunisia Stefanie Brodmann (World Bank) Faycel Zahar (Ministre de Formation professionnelle et de lEmploi) WINNER, BEST ADDRESSES POLITICAL ECONOMY AND IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES EXPERIENCES FROM THE FIELD 2013

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No Good Jobs Available 2 What is the primary obstacle in (country) for youth to get a job or a better job that enables them to start a family? Source: Gallup opinion poll, 2009

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Intervention: The Entrepreneurship Track 3 Objective: Increase self-employment among graduates, by improving skills and affecting attitudes towards entrepreneurship National reform during 09-10 academic year (inter-ministerial committee: Min of Vocational Training & Employment; Industry; Education & Higher Education) Entrepreneurship track for third year university students in applied programs Business training -Entrepreneurship courses offered by the public employment office -Practical research on the ground/ interactive sessions to foster: (i) behavioral skills; (ii) business skills; and (iii) networking skills -Initial business idea: modified after evaluation by bankers and experts Personalized coaching -Private sector entrepreneurs or specialized coaches (8 sessions, either individually or in small groups) University professors -Supervision in development and finalization of the business plan Graduation and possibility to enter into business plan thesis competition

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Labor-market Outcomes: Employment 4 Intervention led to an increase in self-employment Small absolute effects Effect sizes ranging between 48%-81% for ITT No evidence that the program significantly affected overall employment, but substitution between employment and self-employment

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Channels: What is Behind these Employment Results? 5 No impact Access to credit Preferences Small impact Behavioral skills: Entrepreneurial skills Medium impact Behavioral skills: Big Five Networks Business skills Attitudes towards the future Strong impact

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Conclusions 6 Diagnostics: Insufficient labor demand / high youth UE among graduates Impact: Entrepreneurship track led to higher self-employment Employment rate among beneficiaries remained unchanged Affected a range of behavioral skills - Confirms (at least some) non-cognitive skills are malleable - Potential trade-offs between skills for self-employment and wage employment? Scalability: Scaled up and expanded to engineering and masters program Despite large effect size, not a mass effective channel given low base Way forward: What are the additional constraints faced by graduates? How did the firms created develop? What are the constraints to entrepreneurship? Qualitative survey (April/May 2013) and quantitative follow up among pilot participants (September 2013, 3 years after graduation) to understand long term impact of intervention

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Contact Information 7 Impact Evaluation Team Patrick Premand, World Bank: ppremand@worldbank.org ppremand@worldbank.org Stefanie Brodmann, World Bank: sbrodmann@worldbank.org sbrodmann@worldbank.org Rita Almeida, World Bank & IZA: ralmeida@worldbank.org ralmeida@worldbank.org Rebekka Grun, World Bank: rgrun@worldbank.org rgrun@worldbank.org Mahdi Barouni, Centre des recherches et des tudes sociales: barouni.mahdi@gmail.com barouni.mahdi@gmail.com Ministre de Formation professionnelle et de lEmploi (MFPE) Faycel Zahar, Agence Nationale dEmploi et de Travail Indpendant (ANETI) zahar.faycel@emploi.nat.tn Fatma Moussa, Observatoire Nationale dEmploi et des Qualifications (ONEQ) fatma.moussa@mfpe.gov.tn