Policy evaluations of microenterprise business support services in Latin America: A systematic review

• Published in: Evaluation and program planning Vol. 97; p. 102212
• Main Authors: Padilla-Angulo, Laura, Lasarte-López, Jesús Miguel, Pozo, Pedro Caldentey Del
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2023
• Subjects: Business support services; Humans; Latin America; Mexico; Microenterprises; Policy; Policy evaluation; Program Evaluation; Small Business; Systematic review; Mexico; Latin America; Policy evaluation; Business support services; Systematic review; Microenterprises; Latin America
• ISSN: 0149-7189; 1873-7870
• DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2022.102212

Microenterprises represent 88.4 % of Latin American enterprises, and many countries in the region have developed microenterprise promotion policies in recent years; however, rigorous evaluation remains a pending issue. To shed light on the research done on this topic over the last 20 years and propose a roadmap for the policy evaluation of microenterprise business support services and the development of microenterprise indicators, this work conducts a systematic review, following the PRISMA guidelines, of peer-reviewed journal articles examining the impact of business support services on microenterprise performance in low- and middle-income Latin American countries. We identified 679 studies, and 17 studies met the inclusion criteria. We found that the literature is surprisingly scarce; most studies focus on credits and impacts on financial performance and concentrate on Mexico; and only three articles involve randomised controlled trials. Our results have important implications for policymakers and future research. •Rigorous evaluation of microenterprise promotion policies in Latin America remains a pending issue.•The literature using robust methodologies is surprisingly scarce, and very little of it uses random control trials.•The selection of the evaluation methodology should be one of the first steps in the policy design.•The range of policies evaluated should be expanded, such as subsidies or training and technical assistance.•National authorities should support evaluations based on performance indices facilitating monitoring.