Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/154255 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
ECB Working Paper No. 1822
Publisher: 
European Central Bank (ECB), Frankfurt a. M.
Abstract: 
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.
Subjects: 
Bank credit
Cultural bias
Female-owned firms
Gender-based discrimination
JEL: 
G21
J16
N32
Z13
ISBN: 
978-92-899-1635-6
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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