Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0 Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers Creation-Date: 2012-04-20 Number: 12-041/3 Author-Name: Laura Rosendahl Huber Author-Workplace-Name: University of Amsterdam Author-Name: Randolph Sloof Author-Workplace-Name: University of Amsterdam Author-Name: Mirjam van Praag Author-Workplace-Name: Copenhagen Business School, Denmark Title: The Effect of Early Entrepreneurship Education: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment Abstract: This discussion paper resulted in a publication in the 'European Economic Review', 2014, 72(11), pages 76-97.
The aim of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of early entrepreneurship education. To this end, we conduct a randomized field experiment to evaluate a leading entrepreneurship education program that is taught worldwide in the final grade of primary school. We focus on pupils’ development of entrepreneurship knowledge and a set of non-cognitive skills relevant for entrepreneurial activity. The results indicate that knowledge is unaffected by the program. However, the program has a robust positive effect on non-cognitive entrepreneurial skills. This is surprising since previous evaluations found zero or negative effects. Because these earlier studies all pertain to entrepreneurship education for adolescents, our result tentatively suggests that non-cognitive entrepreneurial skills are best developed at an early age. Classification-JEL: L26, I21, J24, C93 Keywords: Skill formation, field experiment, entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship File-Url: https://papers.tinbergen.nl/12041.pdf File-Format: application/pdf File-Size: 739771 bytes Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20120041