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Iacovone, Leonardo

Global Practice on Trade and Competitiveness, The World Bank
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Global Practice on Trade and Competitiveness, The World Bank
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Last updated: January 31, 2025
Biography
Leonardo Iacovone is a Lead Economist in the Trade, Investment and Competitiveness (TIC) Global Practice at the World Bank Group. After having joined the World Bank as Young Professional in 2008, Leonardo has worked in the Development Research Group, the Financial and Private Sector Development Unit of the Africa Region, and the Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship Global Practice. Before joining the World Bank Leonardo worked as economic advisor in Latin America and Southern Africa for UNDP, WTO, UNIDO, USAID, EU, and the Government of Mozambique. Leonardo was trained at Bocconi University of Milan, Italy, University Torquato di Tella of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and received a PhD in Economics from University of Sussex. Leonardo is also Adjoint Professor of Economics at Hertie School, a Research Affiliate with IPA SMEs Initiative and Affiliated Researcher with JPAL. His research has been published in top peer-reviewed journals such as Review of Economic Studies, Economic Journal, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of International Economics, World Development, World Economy, World Bank Economic Review, and Industrial and Corporate Change, and received important recognitions such as the 2009 Paul Geroski Price for the most significant policy contribution awarded to top young economists by the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics.
Citations 166 Scopus

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  • Publication
    Teaching Personal Initiative Beats Traditional Training in Boosting Small Business in West Africa
    (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2017-09-22) Campos, Francisco; Frese, Michael; Goldstein, Markus; Iacovone, Leonardo; Johnson, Hillary C.; McKenzie, David; Mensmann, Mona
    Standard business training programs aim to boost the incomes of the millions of self-employed business owners in developing countries by teaching basic financial and marketing practices, yet the impacts of such programs are mixed. We tested whether a psychology-based personal initiative training approach, which teaches a proactive mindset and focuses on entrepreneurial behaviors, could have more success. A randomized controlled trial in Togo assigned microenterprise owners to a control group (n = 500), a leading business training program (n = 500), or a personal initiative training program (n = 500). Four follow-up surveys tracked outcomes for firms over 2 years and showed that personal initiative training increased firm profits by 30%, compared with a statistically insignificant 11% for traditional training. The training is cost-effective, paying for itself within 1 year. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science Vol 357, issue 6357: 1287-90.