IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oml/wpaper/201601.html

Female Leaders and Financial Inclusion. Evidence from Microfinance Institutions

Author

Listed:
  • Reidar Øystein Strøm

    (Oslo Metropolitan University)

  • Bert D'Espallier

    (Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel (HUBrussel); Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) - Lessius University College)

  • Roy Mersland

    (University of Agder)

Abstract

This research advances the hypothesis that female leaders (CEO, chair, and director) of a microfinance institution (MFI) give more priority to the poorest families in loan provision than male leaders. We differentiate between a depth and a width dimension of financial inclusion. The data set is a unique global panel of MFIs collected from MFI raters’ reports. Our sample is also unique in the sense that about one third of all MFIs have a female CEO. The problem of endogeneity for the female leader is resolved by running Heckman’s two-step endogenous dummy variable estimation with instrument for the female leader. We find evidence for greater depth financial inclusion (smaller average loan, more gender biased) with a female leader, but not for width financial inclusion (credit client growth). The female leaders exhibit greater altruism, greater competition avoidance, but not greater risk aversion than male peers.

Suggested Citation

  • Reidar Øystein Strøm & Bert D'Espallier & Roy Mersland, 2016. "Female Leaders and Financial Inclusion. Evidence from Microfinance Institutions," Working Papers 201601, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:oml:wpaper:201601
    DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2737287
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2737287
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2139/ssrn.2737287?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Zamore, Stephen, 2018. "Should microfinance institutions diversify or focus? A global analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 105-119.
    3. Peterson Ozili, 2025. "Financial inclusion in banking: A literature review and future research directions," Modern Finance, Modern Finance Institute, vol. 3(1), pages 91-109.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

    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:oml:wpaper:201601. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Eirik Hanssen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ohioano.html .

    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.