IPPC Consulting Vouchers — Puebla's Subsidized Management-Consulting Programme for Small Firms

Most small and medium enterprises in developing economies lack access to formal management consulting, and it has been unclear whether subsidising private consulting actually improves performance or is mainly captured by already better-connected firms.
Puebla's state competitiveness agency, the Instituto Poblano de Competitividad (IPPC), opened applications for a consulting programme; researchers randomly assigned 150 of 432 interested firms to a consulting offer that subsidised 70-90% of the cost, pairing them with local consultants for four hours a week over a year on a jointly chosen focus area such as marketing or accounting — only 80 of the 150 offered firms ultimately took up the service.
A year later, treated firms showed a 0.21 standard-deviation rise in sales-based productivity and a 0.22 standard-deviation rise in return on assets, alongside more formal accounting and marketing practices; tracking the same firms for up to five years through Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) payroll records found treated firms had added 5.7 more employees on average — a 57% increase — and roughly 72% higher total wage bills than comparison firms.
Take-up was voluntary and partial — just over half of the firms offered the subsidy actually used it — so the results describe the effect on interested, self-selected adopters rather than all small firms, and IPPC's continued operation as the delivery channel was specific to Puebla state.

Read the full analysis: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/shared/ods/documents?DocumentID=4885