POLICY BRIEF APRIL 2025 BUILDING ENTREPRENEURIAL MIND-SETS: EVIDENCE FROM A LARGE-SCALE EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION IN INDIA Sofia Amaral (The World Bank South Asia Gender Innovation Lab), Aakash Bhalothia (University of California San Diego), Ritam Chaurey (Johns Hopkins University- SAIS), Isis Gaddis (World Bank South Asia Gender Innovation Lab), Gaurav Khanna (University of California San Diego), Samreen Malik (New York University Abu Dhabi), Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay (Indian Statistical Institute), Nishith Prakash (Northeastern University), Raghav Rakesh (Bates White) CONTEXT The Entrepreneurial Mindset Development Program (EMDP) YOUTH NOT IN EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, OR TRAINING IN led to increased agency among students over their education, INDIA The share of youth not in educati careers, own goals, basic financial literacy, and risk preferences. training in India is alarmingly hig Students who participated in the EMDP had higher English highlighting a critical need for effec and Mathematics test scores and wanted to pursue salaried and skill development across both government jobs after their studies. A majority of the program 23.5% private sectors.2 This challenge is levels of entrepreneurship, particul effects were more highly concentrated among female students. There was also substantial heterogeneity among The gender gap in entrepreneurial p students according to local labor markets. Thus, in mandals approximately 30 percent, and this c with a higher concentration of manufacturing jobs, students gap in employment (Chiplunkar a demonstrated a greater inclination to aspire to start a business.1 Government jobs are often seen as m they offer higher pay, job security, and g The share of youth not in education, employment, or training 2024). There is an urgent need to a in India is alarmingly high, at 23.5 percent, highlighting a critical and employment opportunities, esp need for effective labor allocation and skill development across adolescents. Research indicates that, both the public and the private sectors.2 This challenge is participation GENDER GAP IN ENTREPRENEURIAL were equal to male labo PARTICIPATION compounded by low levels of entrepreneurship, particularly India's real gross domestic product among women. The gender gap in entrepreneurial participation by 23.42 percent (World Bank 2024 stands at approximately 30 percent, and this contributes to the entrepreneurial mindset among yout gender gap in employment (Chiplunkar and Goldberg 2024). Government jobs are often seen as more attractive because they 30% for individual empowerment, but a economic growth and gender equality offer higher pay, job security, and good benefits (Mangal 2024). There is an urgent need to address the skills gap and employment opportunities, especially among female adolescents. Research indicates that, if female labor force participation were equal to male labor force participation, India's real gross domestic product (GDP) could increase by 23.42 percent (World Bank 2024). Thus, fostering an entrepreneurial mindset among youth WOMEN MEN is essential not only for individual empowerment, but also to drive broader economic growth and gender equality in India. 1 A mandal is a local administrative unit in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Mandals are local sub-district level administrative units. 2 2022 data of Statistics on Youth (dashboard), International Labour Organization, Geneva, https://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/youth/. THE INTERVENTION To address some of these issues, the EMDP consortium, The EMDP was cost-effective. The cost was approximately along with the State Council of Educational Research and Rs 45.33 (US$0.52) per student excluding teacher salaries. Training–Andhra Pradesh, rolled out the EMDP curriculum The curriculum goals focused on skills development to foster for grade 9 students attending public schools in the 2022/23 essential entrepreneurial competencies among students. academic year.3 The program involved weekly instructional These include promoting curiosity through exploration, classes totaling up to 50 hours, complemented by project- encouraging hands-on learning, teaching resilience through based learning focused on essential entrepreneurial skills acceptance of failures, and emphasizing risk assessment and and mindsets. The intention of the government was to community building for collaborative learning experiences. improve the employability of the youth and educate students The significance of these entrepreneurial skills has been to learn to “get along and get ahead in life” – as described highlighted in previous research, especially their contribution by implementing partners. As a practical application of their to human capital accumulation among adolescents and the skills, students engaged in three small projects and one enhancement of personal initiative. These skills can also lead major project aimed at addressing community challenges. to greater success in the labor market and entrepreneurial This new pedagogy was developed with the intent to better outcomes in later life. engage students with school activities and their community. A cascade training model was used among teachers, whereby master trainers provided initial training to nominated teachers within their mandals to ensure effective delivery of the curriculum. COST PER STUDENT =RS 45.33 (US$0.52) Note: The cost per student does not include teacher salaries. 3 The EMDP consortium includes (a) Udhyam Learning Foundation, (b) Aflatoun International, and (c) Reap Benefit. 2  |  POLICY BRIEF EVALUATION AND RESULTS Design Evidence from Student Surveys To assess the impact of the EMDP on students, Treated students demonstrated higher a randomized controlled trial was undertaken. agency over education, career goals, The approach involved two main samples: personal aspirations, and risk preferences. schools from 50 subdistricts were randomly Furthermore, the program significantly assigned to serve as the control group, and schools from enhanced the agency of female students over 75 subdistricts were randomly selected to be part of the their education, careers, and personal goals and a substantial treatment group. A representative sample of 10 government increase in their sense of control and empowerment. The schools in each subdistrict and 30 students per school girls also showed improvement in financial literacy and was randomly selected for data collection. The focus English and mathematics test scores. This empowerment was on general behavioral traits, entrepreneurship skills, was particularly critical in a context in which 34 percent aspirations, and academic performance as recorded by the of young women are married by age 18, and most are not Unified District Information System for Education Plus. The actively participating in the workforce (Singh and Mukherjee estimation strategy utilized an intent-to-treat approach, 2022). The results suggest that, while both male and facilitating an evaluation of the program's effectiveness, female students experienced positive outcomes from while controlling for various demographic factors, parental the program, the impact on female students was more background, prior entrepreneurship experience, location, substantial, highlighting the program's effectiveness in and school characteristics. addressing gender disparities. The analysis also showed improved gender roles among both girls and boys, which highlights the program’s effect on the behavior of students within classrooms and in public spaces. MAP 1 LOCATION OF INTERVENTIONS, ANDHRA PRADESH Note: Green-shaded areas indicate mandals randomly allocated to the control group; dark blue areas indicate mandals randomly allocated to the treatment group. Black and red dots represent the locations of control and treatment schools in the sample, respectively. Light blue areas indicate mandals that received the intervention but were not randomly selected as part of the study sample. Source: Author’s calculations. APRIL 2025  |  3 Evidence from an Incentivized Task there was no significant differential effect observed among male students overall. The analysis indicated that, while Additionally, a goal of the program was to power limitations hindered the ability to disentangle specific measure noncognitive skills and behaviors components of pitch scores, such as tonality and confidence, among students. Recognizing the difficulties the overall findings underline the effectiveness of the EMDP associated with reporting bias and subjective in enhancing entrepreneurial skills among female students. evaluations, the program implemented an incentivized task to assess entrepreneurial Local Labor Market Heterogenous Impacts skills objectively. Students participated in a business pitch task modeled after Shark Tank. Students were presented with Economic census data were used to test a business scenario and asked to construct a business plan for heterogeneity according to local labor based on various criteria, that included stating a problem market conditions. In mandals with a higher statement and a solution. They were then asked to pitch the concentration of manufacturing jobs, business plan to a potential investor. Each student recorded students demonstrated a greater inclination a pitch lasting no less than two minutes. To evaluate these to aspire to business and nongovernment employment, pitches, a training dataset was established that consisted while expressing reduced interest in public sector positions. of approximately 500 pitches assessed by MBA candidates In areas where government jobs were more prevalent, the from various colleges in India. Pitches were randomly EMDP showed stronger effects, particularly among female selected from both treated and control schools, allocation students. to evaluators was random to mitigate bias. Each pitch was scored across 15 dimensions, and evaluators indicated how The EMDP has shown significant potential to enhance the much they would invest out of a total of Rs 100 in each pitch. entrepreneurial skills and aspirations of students in Andhra To enhance the analysis, audio features were extracted from Pradesh, particularly in fostering agency and resilience the recorded pitches, capturing both acoustic and phonetic among female participants. Its low cost of implementation, characteristics, while text features were generated from scalability, and findings underscore the potential of school- transcribed pitches. A neural network was used to predict run programs aiming to help youth, particularly girls, meet the total score and the amounts invested to complete the the demands of the modern labor market. rest of the data from the pitches. The short-term results of this impact evaluation indicate The results showed that girls performed better in crafting that the EMDP successfully shifted students' mindsets, and delivering business pitches, reflecting their increased leading to improvements in their grades. Follow-up surveys confidence, and secured greater investment compared and analyses will assess the long-term effects of the new with their counterparts in the control group. In contrast, curriculum. References Chiplunkar, Gaurav, and Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg. 2024. “Aggregate Implications of Barriers to Female Entrepreneurship.” Econometrica 92 (6): 1801–35. Mangal, Kunal. 2024. “How Much Are Government Jobs in Developing Countries Worth?” World Bank Economic Review 38 (3): 443–65. Singh, Renu, and Protap Mukherjee. 2022, “Age of Marriage and Related Outcomes: Analysis of NFHS-4.” Young Lives India, New Delhi. World Bank. 2024. South Asia Development Update: Women, Jobs, and Growth. October. Washington, DC: World Bank. STAY CONNECTED We thank the Entrepreneurial Mindset Development Program consortium for the collaboration. We thank Satish Dulla for excellent coordination. SARGENDERLAB@WORLDBANK.ORG WORLDBANK.ORG/SARGENDERLAB