"A large share of the poor in developing countries run small enterprises, often earning low incomes. This paper explores whether the poor performance of businesses can be explained by a lack of basic business skills. We randomized the offer of a free, 48-hour business skills course to female entrepreneurs in rural Mexico. We find that those assigned to treatment earn higher profits, have larger revenues, serve a greater number of clients, are more likely to use formal accounting techniques, and more likely to be registered with the government. Indirect treatment effects on those entrepreneurs randomized out of the program, yet living in treatment villages, are economically meaningful, yet imprecisely measured. We present a simple model of experience and learning that helps interpret our results, and consistent with the theoretical predictions, we find that "low-quality" entrepreneurs are the most likely to quit their business post-treatment, and that the positive impacts of the treatment are increasing in entrepreneurial quality."

"Management has a large effect on the productivity of medium and large firms. But does management matter in micro and small firms, where the majority of the labor force in developing countries works? We develop 26 questions that measure business practices in marketing, stock-keeping, record-keeping, and financial planning. These questions have been administered in surveys in Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka. We show that variation in business practices explains as much of the variation in outcomes-sales, profits, and labor productivity and total factor productivity-in microenterprises as in larger enterprises."

"This introductory guide is aimed at entrepreneurs and investors who are new to the process of negotiating term sheets. It is not meant to provide legal advice; instead, it is designed to provide examples of certain common provisions that are not always easy to grasp.

This guide is a thorough summary of the options for setting up a business in Mexico including the governance clauses and the differences between legal structures. It covers third party investments to raise capitals, and explains the concepts of impact investment, capital instruments and key economic terms."

"In Mexico, early-stage ventures are becoming a focus for governments and investors that want to spur economic development. Since 2013, venture capital activity has grown, while Mexico City has become a social enterprise and impact investing hub for Latin America. Accelerators play a role in developing a pipeline of investment-ready businesses, but little research has been done on the entrepreneurs attending these programs and how they perform with this specific support. With the support of Citibanamex Compromiso Social, GALI is working to increase our understanding of acceleration and early-stage ventures in Mexico. This report includes application and one-year follow-up information from 318 ventures operating in Mexico, contributed by 15 accelerator programs."

"The Global Accelerator Learning Initiative collects information from entrepreneurs when they apply to accelerator programs. This report summarizes application data collected from ventures operating in Mexico that applied to participating accelerator programs between 2013 and early 2016."