The supply of high-quality entrepreneurs in developing countries: evidence from Nigeria

This article analyses entrepreneurial interest and practice as well as the impact of an education policy among a representative sample of highly educated young Nigerians. We use pooled cross-sectional data from 2007 and 2011 on about 27,000 undergraduates in over 50 schools. Our descriptive analyses reveal a high prevalence of interest in entrepreneurship but low prevalence of entrepreneurial practice. In a set of difference-in-differences estimation, the results show that compulsory entrepreneurship education stimulates entrepreneurial interest but does not reinforce it. Quite strikingly, we find that the rate of entrepreneurial practice diminished among students who were exposed to entrepreneurship education compared to the control sample. This suggests that entrepreneurship education improves selection into actual entrepreneurship practice by filtering out individuals with initial interest but with lower perceived success potential.