[Research Seminar] Finance: “Girls just wanna have funds? The effect of women-friendly legislation on women-led firms’ access to credit” C. PERRIN – Université de Strasbourg

Speaker: Caroline PERRIN
Université de Strasbourg

Co-authored with Jérémie BERTRAND (IESEG/LEM)

Date and Location – Thursday February 10th 2022 from 13:40 to 15:10
in P400 (Paris Campus) and in E033 (Lille campus – on Zoom) 

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ABSTRACT

Does a women-friendly legal environment really help women overcome discrimination in credit markets?

By examining antidiscrimination laws and their implications for women-led businesses’ access to credit in 124 countries, the current study differentiates an effect on discouragement (i.e., not asking for credit when they need it, demand-side) and an effect on the probability that they obtain credit (supply-side).

Legal protections are associated with lower women-led firms’ discouragement, but they do not attain more credit. This effect is notable with regard to emotional discouragement and prevails among smaller firms; the supply-side effect also vanishes in Muslim-majority countries.

Finally, enforcement efforts dramatically amplify the effect of women-friendly laws on self-restrictions in terms of credit and enable women to access more credit. These results are robust to several tests.

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