Reproducibility package for Turning Inward and/or Outward: Which Socioemotional Skills Pay For Agribusiness Entrepreneurs In Nigeria?

Socioemotional skills (SES) programs are widely used to promote economic empowerment, yet their returns may vary by skill-type and gender. This paper evaluates an SES intervention for 4,500 agribusiness owners in a large-scale government program in Nigeria. Using a randomized controlled trial we examine whether trainings focused on interpersonal skills yield higher economic returns when combined with intrapersonal skills among men and women. SES trainings overall enhance women’s economic outcomes, raising business profits by over 50%, with some firms brought into activity and others growing on the intensive margin. The interpersonal and combination treatments yield similar economic impacts. However, we find that the interpersonal skills training improves women’s interpersonal skills (e.g., negotiation, empathy and collaboration), while the combination training improves men’s intrapersonal skills (e.g., emotional awareness and perseverance). The positive impacts on women’s business performance are strongest in norm supportive environments — where there is little perceived judgment from the community for defying traditional gender roles — with no evidence of an effect on their agency or decision-making power. Our results suggest that while SES programs are effective at improving women’s economic outcomes, accelerating broader empowerment may require complementary programs to help relax gender norms.