NOVAFRICA Seminar: “Training to end poverty?” by Stefano Caria from the University of Oxford

In our upcoming NOVAFRICA Research Seminar, we are pleased to welcome Professor Stefano Caria, from the University of Oxford, on Wednesday, March 4th, 2026, at 11:30 AM (Lisbon time). This seminar will be held in Room D004, at the Nova School of Business and Economics, Carcavelos campus. Stefano Caria will present his paper on poverty.

“Training to end poverty?”

Abstract

Can training interventions reduce poverty? In a large RCT in urban Bangladesh, we document four key facts about an NGO-run training program. First, there is minimal demand for training when participants are required to pay for the full cost of the program. Second, demand can be boosted substantially by either offering monetary discounts, or by relying on the NGO recruitment protocol, which persuades uncertain prospective trainees of the benefits of the programs. Third, while lowering training prices attracts poorer trainees on average, NGO recruitment skews selection towards less deprived individuals. Fourth, the marginal trainees attracted under the NGO recruitment protocol experience larger benefits from the program, while the marginal trainees attracted with price discounts experience lower benefits. We conclude by studying, through the help of a structural model, whether a combination of price discounts and the NGO recruitment protocol can target the program to high-deprivation, high-benefit individuals.

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