This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Does Gender Matter for Firm Performance? Evidence from Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Sabarwal, Shwetlena () (World Bank)
Terrell, Katherine () (University of Michigan)

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

Using 2005 firm level data for 26 ECA countries, this paper estimates performance gaps between male- and female-owned businesses, while controlling for their location by industry and country. We find that female entrepreneurs have significantly smaller scale of operations (as measured by sales revenues) and are less efficient in terms of Total Factor Productivity (TFP), although this difference is very small. However, they generate the same amount of profit per unit of revenue as men. We find that while both male and female entrepreneurs in ECA are sub-optimally small, women's returns to scale are significantly larger than men's implying that they would gain more from increasing their scale. We argue that the main reasons for the sub-optimal size of female-owned firms are that they are both capital constrained and concentrated in industries with small firms.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp3758.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 3758.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length: 53 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3758

Contact details of provider:
Postal: IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
Phone: +49 228 3894 223
Fax: +49 228 3894 180
Web page: http://www.iza.org

Order Information:
Postal: IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
Email:

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Mark Fallak).

Related research
Keywords: entrepreneurship; finance; gender; Eastern Europe; Central Asia;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Capital and Total Factor Productivity; Capacity
M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics
O12 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
O16 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Bates, Timothy, 1995. "Self-employment entry across industry groups," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 143-156, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Greg Hundley, 2001. "Why Women Earn Less Than Men in Self-Employment," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 22(4), pages 817-829, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde & Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2005. "Individual Risk Attitudes: New Evidence from a Large, Representative, Experimentally-Validated Survey," IZA Discussion Papers 1730, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Ruta Aidis & Friederike Welter & David Smallbone & Nina Isakova, 2007. "Female entrepreneurship in transition economies: the case of Lithuania and Ukraine," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 157-183. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Ingrid Verheul & Andre van Stel & Roy Thurik, 2004. "Explaining female and male entrepreneurship across 29 countries," Papers on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy 2004-08, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Du Rietz, Anita & Henrekson, Magnus, 2000. " Testing the Female Underperformance Hypothesis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Alicia Robb & John Wolken, 2002. "Firm, owner, and financing characteristics: differences between female- and male-owned small businesses," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2002-18, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  8. Riding, Allan L. & Swift, Catherine S., 1990. "Women business owners and terms of credit: Some empirical findings of the Canadian experience," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 5(5), pages 327-340, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Alexander Muravyev & Dorothea Schäfer & Oleksandr Talavera, 2007. "Entrepreneurs' Gender and Financial Constraints: Evidence from International Data," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 706, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Suresh de Mel & David McKenzie & Christopher Woodruff, 2007. "Returns to Capital in Microenterprises: Evidence from a Field Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 2934, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  11. Verheul, Ingrid & Thurik, Roy, 2001. " Start-Up Capital: "Does Gender Matter?"," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 329-45, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. David G. Blanchflower & Phillip B. Levine & David J. Zimmerman, 2003. "Discrimination in the Small-Business Credit Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 930-943, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Rosa, Peter & Carter, Sara & Hamilton, Daphne, 1996. " Gender as a Determinant of Small Business Performance: Insights from a British Study," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(6), pages 463-78, December.
  14. Niels Bosma & Mirjam van Praag & Roy Thurik & Gerrit de Wit, 2004. "The Value of Human and Social Capital Investments for the Business Performance of Startups," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 227-236, October. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Cavalluzzo, Ken S & Cavalluzzo, Linda C, 1998. "Market Structure and Discrimination: The Case of Small Businesses," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 30(4), pages 771-92, November.
  16. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2001. "Boys Will Be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, And Common Stock Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 116(1), pages 261-292, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Buttner, E. Holly & Rosen, Benson, 1989. "Funding new business ventures: Are decision makers biased against women entrepreneurs?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 249-261, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Ken Cavalluzzo & John Wolken, 2005. "Small Business Loan Turndowns, Personal Wealth, and Discrimination," Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(6), pages 2153-2178, November. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  19. Fischer, Eileen M. & Reuber, A. Rebecca & Dyke, Lorraine S., 1993. "A theoretical overview and extension of research on sex, gender, and entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 151-168, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? Springer Verlag was the first commercial publisher to be listed on RePEc.

This page was last updated on 2009-11-23.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.