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American Economic Review Vol. 103 No. 3 2013

Access to Credit by Firms in Sub-Saharan Africa: How Relevant is Gender?

Elizabeth Asiedu1; Isaac Kalonda-Kanyama2; Leonce Ndikumana3; Akwasi Nti-Addae1

1 Department of Economics, 415 Snow Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045. · 2 Department of Economics, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa 2006. · 3 Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, 200 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01003.

Abstract

The literature on the determinants of firms' financing constraints has paid little attention to gender as a determinant of access to finance. Using data for 34,342 firms from 90 developing countries, the paper analyzes the determinants of firms' financing constraints and assesses whether female-owned firms are more financially constrained than male-owned businesses. The results show that female-owned firms in sub-Saharan Africa are more likely to be financially constrained than male-owned firms, but there is no gender gap in other developing regions. The gender gap in sub-Saharan Africa is robust to variations in specifications and econometric estimation procedures.

DOI
10.1257/aer.103.3.293
Volume
103
Issue
3
Pages
293-297
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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