Does Corruption Discourage More Female Entrepreneurs from Applying for Credit?

35 Pages Posted: 18 Feb 2021

See all articles by Jean-Christophe Statnik

Jean-Christophe Statnik

Unniversity of Lille

Laurent Weill

University of Strasbourg - LaRGE Research Center (Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie)

Vu Thi Le Giang

Université de Lille

Date Written: December 31, 2020

Abstract

There is evidence of a gender gap in access to finance. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that corruption discourages more female than male entrepreneurs from applying for credit. We use data on access to credit and corruption at the firm level for a large dataset of firms from 68 countries worldwide. We demonstrate that female entrepreneurs are more discouraged by corruption to ask for credit than male borrowers. We find evidence for three explanations for the gendered impact of corruption on borrower discouragement: women-managed firms suffer more from corruption than men-managed firms, women have less experience in management than men and as such can have less experience to deal with corruption, and gender inequality in society enhances the discouragement of female borrowers. Thus, our findings provide evidence that corruption enhances the gender gap in access to finance, enhancing gender inequality in participation in economic activity.

Keywords: gender, access to credit, borrower discouragement, corruption.

JEL Classification: D73, G21, J16

Suggested Citation

Statnik, Jean-Christophe and Weill, Laurent and Giang, Vu Thi Le, Does Corruption Discourage More Female Entrepreneurs from Applying for Credit? (December 31, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3758114 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3758114

Jean-Christophe Statnik (Contact Author)

Unniversity of Lille ( email )

1, rue de Mulhouse
Lille, 59000
France

Laurent Weill

University of Strasbourg - LaRGE Research Center (Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie) ( email )

61 Avenue de la Forêt Noire
F-67085 Strasbourg Cedex
France

Vu Thi Le Giang

Université de Lille ( email )

2 Rue de Mulhouse
Lille, Nord - Pas-de-Calais 59000
France

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
89
Abstract Views
742
Rank
590,816
PlumX Metrics