Arbeitspapier

Gender bias and credit access

This paper studies the causal effect of gender bias on access to bank credit. We extract an exogenous measure of gender bias from survey responses by descendants of US immigrants on questions about the role of women in society. We then use data on 6,000 small business firms from 17 countries and find that in countries with higher gender bias, female-owned firms are more frequently discouraged from applying for bank credit and more likely to rely on informal finance. At the same time, loan rejection rates and terms on granted loans do not vary between male and female firm owners. These results are not driven by credit risk differences between female- and male-owned firms or by any idiosyncrasies in the set of countries in our sample. Overall, the evidence suggests that in high-gender bias countries, female entrepreneurs are more likely to opt out of the loan application process, even though banks do not appear to discriminate against females that apply for credit.

ISBN
978-92-899-1635-6
Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: ECB Working Paper ; No. 1822

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Banks; Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
Thema
Bank credit
Cultural bias
Female-owned firms
Gender-based discrimination

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Ongena, Steven
Popov, Alexander
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
European Central Bank (ECB)
(wo)
Frankfurt a. M.
(wann)
2015

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ

Datenpartner

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Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Ongena, Steven
  • Popov, Alexander
  • European Central Bank (ECB)

Entstanden

  • 2015

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