Are Women More Credit Constrained? Experimental Evidence on Gender and Microenterprise Returns
This paper analyzes data from a randomized experiment on mean returns to capital in Sri Lankan micro-enterprises. The findings show greater returns among men than among women; indeed, returns were not different from zero for women. The authors expl...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/10/9903470/women-more-credit-constrained-experimental-evidence-gender-microenterprise-returns http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6933 |
| Summary: | This paper analyzes data from a
randomized experiment on mean returns to capital in Sri
Lankan micro-enterprises. The findings show greater returns
among men than among women; indeed, returns were not
different from zero for women. The authors explore different
explanations for the lower returns among female owners, and
find no evidence that the gender gap is explained by
differences in ability, risk aversion, or entrepreneurial
attitudes. Differential access to unpaid family labor and
social constraints limiting sales to local areas are not
important. However, there is evidence that women invested
grants differently from men. A smaller share of the smaller
grants remained in the female-owned enterprises, and men
were more likely to spend the grant on working capital and
women on equipment. The gender gap is largest when
male-dominated sectors are compared with female-dominated
sectors, although female returns are lower than male returns
even for females working in the same industries as men. The
authors examine the heterogeneity of returns to determine
whether any group of businesses owned by women benefit from
easing capital constraints. The results suggest there is a
large group of high-return male owners and a smaller group
of poor, high-ability, female owners who might benefit from
more access to capital. |
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