Join us for a one-hour event featuring new evidence from the SGB Evidence Fund. The fund has commissioned more than a dozen rigorous studies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. USAID, a key supporter of the fund, and representatives from ANDE and the International Growth Centre (IGC) will host a presentation of key insights that emerged from two studies supported by the fund that examine interventions to reduce gender discrimination in access to finance.
About the Presenters
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- Amisha Miller, Asistant Professor at New York University Stern School of Business, presenting “Change the system, not the seeker: how investors’ evaluation systems affect investments in female-founded startups.“ See ANDE’s knowledge brief about this research here.
- Shanthi Manian, Assistant Professor at Washington State University of Economic Science and Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, presenting “Discrimination and access to capital: experimental evidence from Ethiopia.” See ANDE’s knowledge brief about this research here.
About the SGB Evidence Fund
The Small and Growing Business (SGB) Evidence Fund is a joint effort of the International Growth Centre (IGC) and Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) to facilitate collaborations between researchers and practitioners to understand how to stimulate SGB growth to create jobs and reduce poverty in developing countries. The SGB Evidence Fund supports work in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America.
The purpose of the fund is to develop a leading repository of knowledge on interventions that stimulate the growth of SGBs through improvements in firm productivity and performance. We aim to conduct rigorous research on interventions that address constraints to capital, labor, and efficiency – the key factors determining productivity growth – and understand the impact productivity gains have on job creation, job quality, and poverty alleviation.
Historically, academic research has been inhibited by a lack of mechanisms to capture insights from businesses larger than microenterprises. Therefore, this fund requires applicant researchers to team up with practitioners providing real-time support to SGBs. This is done with the purpose of pairing rigorous research with practical needs, which is the way the SGB Evidence Fund accelerates learning in the sector and influences the thinking and practice of practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and funders on the most effective ways to support SGB growth. The fund has commissioned research in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America on a wide range of topics relevant to SGBs, inter alia, gender inclusion in access to finance; hiring frictions; e-commerce; and public procurement. A full list of supported projects can be viewed here.