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What drives women out of entrepreneurship? The joint role of testosterone and culture

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  • Guiso, Luigi
  • Rustichini, Aldo

Abstract

The ratio of second to fourth digit (2D4D) has been shown to correlate negatively with entrepreneurial skills and financial success. We document that in a sample of entrepreneurs women have a lower 2D4D ratio than men, in sharp contrast with the features of the distribution in random samples. Exploiting variation across communities in indices correlated with women emancipation, we show that in regions where women are less emancipated their average DR is lower than that of men compared to regions with higher indices. This finding is consistent with the existence of gender related obstacles into entrepreneurship so that only women with well above average entrepreneurial skills find it attractive to self-select into entrepreneurship. This finding can rationalize three facts: a) fewer women than men are entrepreneurs; b) the proportion of women among entrepreneurs tends to be higher in countries with higher women emancipation; c) women who break the barrier into entrepreneurship seem to show more masculine traits. We also find that once women enter entrepreneurship, they are equally able than man to translate their ability into outcomes for the firm.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 8204.

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Date of creation: Jan 2011
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8204

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Keywords: digit ratio; entrepreneurial ability; entrepreneurship; testosterone; women emancipation;

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References

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  1. Dreber, Anna & von Essen, Emma & Ranehill, Eva, 2009. "Outrunning the Gender Gap – Boys and Girls Compete Equally," SIFR Research Report Series 69, Institute for Financial Research.
  2. Luigi Guiso & Fabiano Schivardi, 2011. "What Determines Entrepreneurial Clusters?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 61-86, 02.
  3. Miles S. Kimball & Claudia R. Sahm & Matthew D. Shapiro, 2007. "Imputing Risk Tolerance from Survey Responses," NBER Working Papers 13337, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Monica Paiella & Luigi Guiso, 2004. "Risk Aversion, Wealth and Background Risk," 2004 Meeting Papers 525, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  5. Uri Gneezy & Aldo Rustichini, 2004. "Gender and competition at a young age," Framed Field Experiments 00151, The Field Experiments Website.
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Cited by:
  1. Ruiu, Gabriele, 2012. "Is fatalism a cultural belief? An empirical analysis on the origin of fatalistic tendencies," MPRA Paper 41705, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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