IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v34y2010i12p2968-2984.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does gender matter in bank-firm relationships? Evidence from small business lending

Author

Listed:
  • Bellucci, Andrea
  • Borisov, Alexander
  • Zazzaro, Alberto

Abstract

In this paper we study the relevance of the gender of the contracting parties involved in lending. We show that female entrepreneurs face tighter credit availability, even though they do not pay higher interest rates. The effect is independent of the information available about the borrower and holds if we control for unobservable individual effects. The gender of the loan officer is also important: we find that female officers are more risk-averse or less self-confident than male officers as they tend to restrict credit availability to new, un-established borrowers more than their male counterparts.

Suggested Citation

  • Bellucci, Andrea & Borisov, Alexander & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2010. "Does gender matter in bank-firm relationships? Evidence from small business lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2968-2984, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:34:y:2010:i:12:p:2968-2984
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378-4266(10)00266-9
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hans Degryse & Steven Ongena, 2005. "Distance, Lending Relationships, and Competition," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 231-266, February.
    2. Thorsten Beck & Patrick Behr & Andre Guettler, 2013. "Gender and Banking: Are Women Better Loan Officers?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(4), pages 1279-1321.
    3. Sara Carter & Eleanor Shaw & Wing Lam & Fiona Wilson, 2007. "Gender, Entrepreneurship, and Bank Lending: The Criteria and Processes Used by Bank Loan Officers in Assessing Applications," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(3), pages 427-444, May.
    4. Andrea Bellucci & Alexander Borisov & Alberto Zazzaro, 2011. "Do Male and Female Loan Officers Differ in Small Business Lending? A Review of the Literature," Contributions to Economics, in: Giorgio Calcagnini & Ilario Favaretto (ed.), The Economics of Small Businesses, chapter 0, pages 195-219, Springer.
    5. Hausman, Jerry A & Taylor, William E, 1981. "Panel Data and Unobservable Individual Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1377-1398, November.
    6. Wagenvoort, Rien, 2003. "Are finance constraints hindering the growth of SMEs in Europe?," EIB Papers 7/2003, European Investment Bank, Economics Department.
    7. Pietro Alessandrini & Alberto Zazzaro, 2009. "Bank’s Localism and Industrial Districts," Chapters, in: Giacomo Becattini & Marco Bellandi & Lisa De Propis (ed.), A Handbook of Industrial Districts, chapter 34, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Chakraborty, Atreya & Hu, Charles X., 2006. "Lending relationships in line-of-credit and nonline-of-credit loans: Evidence from collateral use in small business," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 86-107, January.
    9. Jiménez, Gabriel & Salas, Vicente & Saurina, Jesús, 2009. "Organizational distance and use of collateral for business loans," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 234-243, February.
    10. Berger, Allen N. & Miller, Nathan H. & Petersen, Mitchell A. & Rajan, Raghuram G. & Stein, Jeremy C., 2005. "Does function follow organizational form? Evidence from the lending practices of large and small banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 237-269, May.
    11. Carletti, Elena & Cerasi, Vittoria & Daltung, Sonja, 2007. "Multiple-bank lending: Diversification and free-riding in monitoring," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 425-451, July.
    12. Marie-Claire Villeval & Nabanita Datta Gupta & Anders Poulsen, 2005. "Male and Female Competitive Behavior - Experimental Evidence," Working Papers 0512, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    13. DeYoung, Robert & Glennon, Dennis & Nigro, Peter, 2008. "Borrower-lender distance, credit scoring, and loan performance: Evidence from informational-opaque small business borrowers," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 113-143, January.
    14. Arito Ono & Iichiro Uesugi, 2005. "The Role of Collateral and Personal Guarantees in Relationship Lending: Evidence from Japan's Small Business Loan Market," Discussion papers 05027, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    15. Alberto F. Alesina & Francesca Lotti & Paolo Emilio Mistrulli, 2013. "Do Women Pay More For Credit? Evidence From Italy," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11, pages 45-66, January.
    16. Pietro Alessandrini & Michele Fratianni & Alberto Zazzaro, 2009. "The Changing Geography of Banking and Finance: The Main Issues," Springer Books, in: Alberto Zazzaro & Michele Fratianni & Pietro Alessandrini (ed.), The Changing Geography of Banking and Finance, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 1-11, Springer.
    17. Sakai, Koji & Uesugi, Iichiro & Watanabe, Tsutomu, 2010. "Firm age and the evolution of borrowing costs: Evidence from Japanese small firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1970-1981, August.
    18. 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 771-792, November.
    19. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2002. "Does Distance Still Matter? The Information Revolution in Small Business Lending," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2533-2570, December.
    20. Calem Paul & Stutzer Michael, 1995. "The Simple Analytics of Observed Discrimination in Credit Markets," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 189-212, July.
    21. Angelini, P. & Di Salvo, R. & Ferri, G., 1998. "Availability and cost of credit for small businesses: Customer relationships and credit cooperatives," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 925-954, August.
    22. Sumit Agarwal, 2010. "Distance and Private Information in Lending," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(7), pages 2757-2788, July.
    23. Alessandro Gambini & Alberto Zazzaro, 2013. "Long-lasting bank relationships and growth of firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 977-1007, May.
    24. Powell, Melanie & Ansic, David, 1997. "Gender differences in risk behaviour in financial decision-making: An experimental analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 605-628, November.
    25. Andersson, Patric, 2004. "Does experience matter in lending? A process-tracing study on experienced loan officers' and novices' decision behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 471-492, August.
    26. Nabanita Datta Gupta & Anders Poulsen & Marie Claire Villeval, 2005. "Male and Female Competitive Behavior: Experimental," Post-Print halshs-00175039, HAL.
    27. Alessandro GAMBINI & Alberto ZAZZARO, 2009. "Who captures who? Long-lasting bank relationships and growth of firms," Working Papers 332, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    28. Hartmann-Wendels, Thomas & Mählmann, Thomas & Versen, Tobias, 2009. "Determinants of banks' risk exposure to new account fraud - Evidence from Germany," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 347-357, February.
    29. Cerqueiro, Geraldo & Degryse, Hans & Ongena, Steven, 2011. "Rules versus discretion in loan rate setting," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 503-529, October.
    30. Andrew Hertzberg & Jose Maria Liberti & Daniel Paravisini, 2010. "Information and Incentives Inside the Firm: Evidence from Loan Officer Rotation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 795-828, June.
    31. Muravyev, Alexander & Talavera, Oleksandr & Schäfer, Dorothea, 2009. "Entrepreneurs' gender and financial constraints: Evidence from international data," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 270-286, June.
    32. Sumit Agarwal & Faye H. Wang, 2009. "Perverse incentives at the banks? Evidence from a natural experiment," Working Paper Series WP-09-08, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    33. Ken Cavalluzzo & Linda Cavalluzzo & John D. Wolken, 1999. "Competition, small business financing, and discrimination: evidence from a new survey," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1999-25, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    34. Ai, Chunrong & Norton, Edward C., 2003. "Interaction terms in logit and probit models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 123-129, July.
    35. Catherine C. Eckel & Philip J. Grossman, 2008. "Forecasting Risk Attitudes: An Experimental Study Using Actual and Forecast Gamble Choices," Monash Economics Working Papers archive-01, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    36. Kenneth P. Brevoort & John D. Wolken, 2009. "Does Distance Matter in Banking?," Springer Books, in: Alberto Zazzaro & Michele Fratianni & Pietro Alessandrini (ed.), The Changing Geography of Banking and Finance, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 27-56, Springer.
    37. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
    38. Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1994. "The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-37, March.
    39. Buttner, E. Holly & Rosen, Benson, 1988. "Bank loan officers' perceptions of the characteristics of men, women, and successful entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 249-258.
    40. Alberto Zazzaro & Michele Fratianni & Pietro Alessandrini (ed.), 2009. "The Changing Geography of Banking and Finance," Springer Books, Springer, edition 1, number 978-0-387-98078-2, November.
    41. Kenneth P. Brevoort & John D. Wolken, 2008. "Does distance matter in banking?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2008-34, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    42. Degryse, Hans & Van Cayseele, Patrick, 2000. "Relationship Lending within a Bank-Based System: Evidence from European Small Business Data," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 90-109, January.
    43. Rebel A. Cole & Hamid Mehran, 2009. "Gender and the availability of credit to privately held firms: evidence from the surveys of small business finances," Staff Reports 383, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    44. Berger, Allen N & Udell, Gregory F, 1995. "Relationship Lending and Lines of Credit in Small Firm Finance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(3), pages 351-381, July.
    45. Ogawa, Kazuo & Sterken, Elmer & Tokutsu, Ichiro, 2007. "Why do Japanese firms prefer multiple bank relationship? Some evidence from firm-level data," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 49-70, March.
    46. Hirofumi Uchida & Gregory F. Udell & Nobuyoshi Yamori, 2006. "Loan Officers and Relationship Lending," Discussion papers 06031, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    47. 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, November.
    48. Ken S. Cavalluzzo, 2002. "Competition, Small Business Financing, and Discrimination: Evidence from a New Survey," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(4), pages 641-680, October.
    49. Pietro Alessandrini & Andrea F. Presbitero & Alberto Zazzaro, 2009. "Banks, Distances and Firms' Financing Constraints," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 13(2), pages 261-307.
    50. Ben-Ner, Avner & Kong, Fanmin & Putterman, Louis, 2004. "Share and share alike? Gender-pairing, personality, and cognitive ability as determinants of giving," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 581-589, October.
    51. Carling, Kenneth & Lundberg, Sofia, 2005. "Asymmetric information and distance: an empirical assessment of geographical credit rationing," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 39-59.
    52. Alessandrini, Pietro & Calcagnini, Giorgio & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2008. "Asset restructuring strategies in bank acquisitions: Does distance between dealing partners matter?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 699-713, May.
    53. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2001. "Boys will be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 261-292.
    54. Vishal K. Gupta & Daniel B. Turban & S. Arzu Wasti & Arijit Sikdar, 2009. "The Role of Gender Stereotypes in Perceptions of Entrepreneurs and Intentions to Become an Entrepreneur," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(2), pages 397-417, March.
    55. D'Auria, Claudio & Foglia, Antonella & Reedtz, Paolo Marullo, 1999. "Bank interest rates and credit relationships in Italy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 1067-1093, July.
    56. Uri Gneezy & Muriel Niederle & Aldo Rustichini, 2003. "Performance in Competitive Environments: Gender Differences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 1049-1074.
    57. Brick, Ivan E. & Palia, Darius, 2007. "Evidence of jointness in the terms of relationship lending," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 452-476, July.
    58. Eckel, Catherine C & Grossman, Philip J, 2001. "Chivalry and Solidarity in Ultimatum Games," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(2), pages 171-188, April.
    59. Mersland, Roy & Øystein Strøm, R., 2009. "Performance and governance in microfinance institutions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 662-669, April.
    60. Harhoff, Dietmar & Korting, Timm, 1998. "Lending relationships in Germany - Empirical evidence from survey data," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(10-11), pages 1317-1353, October.
    61. Giacomo Becattini & Marco Bellandi & Lisa De Propis (ed.), 2009. "A Handbook of Industrial Districts," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12736.
    62. Cole, Rebel A., 1998. "The importance of relationships to the availability of credit," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 959-977, August.
    63. Harhoff, Dietmar & Körting, Timm, 1998. "Lending Relationships in Germany: Empirical Results from Survey Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 1917, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    64. Boot, Arnoud W A & Thakor, Anjan V, 1994. "Moral Hazard and Secured Lending in an Infinitely Repeated Credit Market Game," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 35(4), pages 899-920, November.
    65. Dufwenberg, Martin & Muren, Astri, 2006. "Generosity, anonymity, gender," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 42-49, September.
    66. Alicia M. Robb & John D. 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.).
    67. Boot, Arnoud W. A., 2000. "Relationship Banking: What Do We Know?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 7-25, January.
    68. Scalera, Domenico & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2001. "Group reputation and persistent (or permanent) discrimination in credit markets," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(4-5), pages 483-496, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bellucci, Andrea & Borisov, Alexander & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2013. "Do banks price discriminate spatially? Evidence from small business lending in local credit markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4183-4197.
    2. Andrea Bellucci & Alexander Borisov & Germana Giombini & Alberto Zazzaro, 2015. "Collateral and Local Lending: Testing the Lender-Based Theory," IAW Discussion Papers 119, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW).
    3. Bellucci, Andrea & Borisov, Alexander & Giombini, Germana & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2019. "Collateralization and distance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 205-217.
    4. Uchida, Hirofumi & Udell, Gregory F. & Yamori, Nobuyoshi, 2012. "Loan officers and relationship lending to SMEs," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 97-122.
    5. Andrea Bellucci & Alexander Borisov & Alberto Zazzaro, 2011. "Do Male and Female Loan Officers Differ in Small Business Lending? A Review of the Literature," Contributions to Economics, in: Giorgio Calcagnini & Ilario Favaretto (ed.), The Economics of Small Businesses, chapter 0, pages 195-219, Springer.
    6. Pietro Alessandrini & Andrea Filippo Presbitero & Alberto Zazzaro, 2008. "Global Banking and Local Markets," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 4, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    7. Norden, L., 2015. "The Role of Banks in SME Finance," ERIM Inaugural Address Series Research in Management EIA-2015-062-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam..
    8. Cenni, Stefano & Monferrà, Stefano & Salotti, Valentina & Sangiorgi, Marco & Torluccio, Giuseppe, 2015. "Credit rationing and relationship lending. Does firm size matter?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 249-265.
    9. Kano, Masaji & Uchida, Hirofumi & Udell, Gregory F. & Watanabe, Wako, 2011. "Information verifiability, bank organization, bank competition and bank-borrower relationships," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 935-954, April.
    10. Doris Neuberger & Solvig Räthke-Döppner, 2015. "The role of demographics in small business loan pricing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 411-424, February.
    11. Djedidi-Kooli, Salima, 2009. "L’accès au financement des PME en France : quel rôle joué par la structure du système bancaire ?," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/8354 edited by Etner, François.
    12. Yaldız Hanedar, Elmas & Broccardo, Eleonora & Bazzana, Flavio, 2014. "Collateral requirements of SMEs: The evidence from less-developed countries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 106-121.
    13. Cerqueiro, Geraldo & Degryse, Hans & Ongena, Steven, 2011. "Rules versus discretion in loan rate setting," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 503-529, October.
    14. Simon Cornée, 2014. "Soft Information and Default Prediction in Cooperative and Social Banks," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 3(1), pages 89-103, June.
    15. Meles, Antonio & Porzio, Claudio & Sampagnaro, Gabriele & Starita, Maria Grazia & Verdoliva, Vincenzo, 2017. "Collateralization of business loans: Testing the prediction of theories," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 922-938.
    16. Cotugno, Matteo & Monferrà, Stefano & Sampagnaro, Gabriele, 2013. "Relationship lending, hierarchical distance and credit tightening: Evidence from the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1372-1385.
    17. Annie bellier & Wafa Sayeh & Stéphanie Serve, 2012. "What lies behind credit rationing? A survey of the literature," THEMA Working Papers 2012-39, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    18. Kislat, Carmen & Menkhoff, Lukas & Neuberger, Doris, 2013. "The use of collateral in formal and informal lending," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79765, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Chala, Alemu Tulu & Forssbaeck, Jens, 2018. "Does Collateral Reduce Loan-Size Credit Rationing? Survey Evidence," Working Papers 2018:36, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    20. Eugene Kang & Asghar Zardkoohi & Ramona Paetzold & Donald Fraser, 2013. "Relationship banking and escalating commitments to bad loans," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 899-910, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender-based discrimination Female-owned enterprises Loan officers;

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:34:y:2010:i:12:p:2968-2984. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.