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Gender Bias in Access to Finance, Occupational Choice, and Business Performance

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Nigar Hashimzade

    ()

    (Department of Economics, University of Reading)

  • Yulia Rodionova

    ()

    (Leicester Business School, De Montfort University)

Abstract

We analyze, in a model of occupational choice in the labour market and discrimination in the capital market, the relationship between the gender of the owner and of the top manager of a firm, access to finance, and this firm's performance. Occupational choice serves as the link from the capital market to the labour market. The model predicts that if the lenders discriminate against female entrepreneurs, then the conditional average of entrepreneurial skill of female business owners and female top managers is higher than that of their male counterparts. We find empirical evidence in support of our model using firm-level data from the 2009 wave of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) for twenty six emerging economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Specifically, we find evidence of discrimination of women in the capital market. Furthermore, we find a positive effect of the female gender of a business owner and of a business top manager on business performance, after controlling for various factors, including possible constraints on access to external finance. The positive effect of a female top manager is mitigated if the firm is owned by a female, suggesting decreasing return to skill, or if it operates in certain industries where female leadership may be of special value, which could be an additional factor in the occupational choice.

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File URL: http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/economics/emdp2013098.pdf
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Paper provided by Henley Business School, Reading University in its series Economics & Management Discussion Papers with number em-dp2013-01.

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Length: 24 pages
Date of creation: 08 Apr 2013
Handle: RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2013-01
Contact details of provider: Postal:
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Web page: http://www.henley.reading.ac.uk/

More information through EDIRC

Keywords: discrimination; finance; gender; occupational choice; small and medium enterprises;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

  • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
  • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
  • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

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  1. Coate, Stephen & Tennyson, Sharon, 1992. "Labor Market Discrimination, Imperfect Information and Self Employment," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 44(2), pages 272-288, April.
  2. 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.
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  5. 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.
  6. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2008. "Some Practical Guidance For The Implementation Of Propensity Score Matching," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-72, 02.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Sabarwal, Shwetlena & Terrell, Katherine, 2008. "Does Gender Matter for Firm Performance? Evidence from Eastern Europe and Central Asia," IZA Discussion Papers 3758, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  10. Kaiser, Ulrich & Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj, 2011. "Is self-employment really a bad experience?: The effects of previous self-employment on subsequent wage-employment wages," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 572-588, September.
  11. Fay, Michael & Williams, Lesley, 1993. "Gender bias and the availability of business loans," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 363-376, July.
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  14. Simon Commander & Jan Svejnar, 2011. "Business Environment, Exports, Ownership, and Firm Performance," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 309-337, February.
  15. 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.
  16. Phelps, Edmund S, 1972. "The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 659-661, September.
  17. Coate, Stephen & Loury, Glenn C, 1993. "Will Affirmative-Action Policies Eliminate Negative Stereotypes?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1220-1240, December.
  18. Ruta Aidis & Friederike Welter & David Smallbone & Nina Isakova, 2007. "Female entrepreneurship in transition economies: the case of Lithuania and Ukraine," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 157-183.
  19. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
  20. Sascha O. Becker & Andrea Ichino, 2002. "Estimation of average treatment effects based on propensity scores," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 2(4), pages 358-377, November.
  21. 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.
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Cited by:

  1. Emmanuel O. Nwosu & Anthony Orji & Vivian Nwangwu & Chioma Nwangwu, 2015. "Is there Discrimination Against Women Entrepreneurs in Formal Credit Markets in Nigeria?," Working Papers PMMA 2015-01, PEP-PMMA.
  2. Fiona Wilson, 2016. "Making Loan Decisions in Banks: Straight from the Gut?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 53-63, August.

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