The academic and policy debates about microenterprise activities often focus on credit constraints, assuming that business is handled optimally given those and other restrictions. The entrepreneurs, however, rarely have formal training in business management. For its part, a growing number of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Peru and the world, seeks to build human capital for these entrepreneurs to improve their living standards, contributing to its mission of reducing poverty. Using an experimental design, this study measured the marginal impact of adding a component of business management training to financial services program that serves women microentrepreneurs in Peru through the village banking methodology. groups received treatment for a period of one to two years, training sessions of thirty to sixty minutes during the regular meetings, weekly or monthly, the village bank. Control groups remained as before, to meet with the same frequency, but only to make loan payments and savings deposits. We find evidence that the program improves knowledge of the entrepreneurs about good corporate governance practices, but the effects on key outcomes such as income, earnings or employment levels in business are invalid or not at all robust. However, the retention rates of the members in the IMF do increase significantly.
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