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Closing the Gender Profit Gap

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  • Sequeira, Sandra
  • Vicente, Pedro
  • Batista, Catia

Abstract

We examine the complementarity between access to mobile savings accounts and improved financial management skills on the performance of female-led micro-enterprises in Mozambique. This combined support is associated with a large increase in both short and long-term firm profits and in financial security, when compared to the independent effect of each of these interventions. This support allowed female-headed micro-enterprises to close the gender gap in performance and financial literacy relative to their male counterparts. The main drivers of improved business performance are increased financial management practices (bookkeeping), an increase in accessible savings and reduced transfers to friends and relatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Sequeira, Sandra & Vicente, Pedro & Batista, Catia, 2021. "Closing the Gender Profit Gap," CEPR Discussion Papers 15916, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:15916
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    Cited by:

    1. Görg, Holger & Jäkel, Ina C., 2024. "Beyond Borders: Do Gender Norms and Institutions Affect Female Businesses?," IZA Discussion Papers 17123, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Cátia Batista & Pedro C. Vicente, 2025. "Is Mobile Money Changing Rural Africa? Evidence from a Field Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 107(3), pages 835-844, May.
    3. Sharifah Rahama Amirul & Sharifah Milda Amirul & Rasid Mail & Mohd Allif Anwar Abu Bakar, 2024. "Financial Literacy Beyond Numbers: Human Capital Intervention for Micro-enterprise Sustainability," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(12), pages 1897-1910, December.
    4. Alex Armand & Mattia Fracchia & Pedro C. Vicente, 2024. "Let's call! Using the phone to increase vaccine acceptance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 82-106, January.
    5. Syed Muhammad Usman Masood & Rasim Özcan & Asad ul Islam Khan, 2023. "Till debt does us apart: Cross-country evidence on the relationship between microfinance prevalence and social distrust," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(3), pages 1-20, March.
    6. Alex Armand & Mattia Fracchia & Pedro C. Vicente, 2021. "Let s call! Using the phone to increase acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2113, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    7. Sachin Kumar Sharma & P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan & Stan Karanasios, 2024. "Small businesses and FinTech: a systematic review and future directions," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 535-575, March.
    8. Delecourt, Solène, 2025. "The effect of relieving time constraints on the business performance of women-owned businesses: A field experiment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(7).
    9. Ana Luísa Costa Normando & José Renato Haas Ornelas, 2025. "Gender Gap among Microentrepreneurs in Brazil," Working Papers Series 627, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    10. Ira N. Gang & Rajesh Raj Natarajan & Kunal Sen & Myeong-Su Yun, 2021. "The gender productivity gap: Evidence from the Indian informal sector," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-183, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Görg, Holger & Jäkel, Ina Charlotte, 2024. "Beyond borders: Do gender norms and institutions affect female businesses?," Kiel Working Papers 2273, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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