Countering The Threat of Sexual Corruption to Female Entrepreneurs: Experimental Evidence from Burkina Faso

Sexual corruption functions as a gendered barrier to market entry, leveraging administrative power to extract sexual favors from vulnerable economic actors. This paper addresses the paucity of causal evidence on mitigation strategies by examining the experiences of female entrepreneurs in Burkina Faso. First, drawing on novel pilot survey data, we map the scale and modality of the problem: 14 percent of respondents report victimization, with risk sharply concentrated during the "start-up" phase of business formalization. Our analysis reconceptualizes these incidents not as discrete transactions, but as protracted "sets of abuses" that exploit the necessity of bureaucratic compliance. Moving beyond description, the paper presents the results of a pilot intervention designed to inoculate entrepreneurs against these risks through targeted professional training and support groups. We assess whether increasing institutional literacy and regulatory knowledge can disrupt the power asymmetries that facilitate predation. Finally, the paper details the experimental design of a forthcoming full-scale Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT). By rigorous testing of these mechanisms, the study aims to provide the first scalable, evidence-based framework for protecting women’s economic agency in high-corruption environments.