Female entrepreneurship, financial frictions and capital misallocation in the US

We document and quantify the effect of a gender gap in credit access on both entrepreneurship and input misallocation in the US. Female entrepreneurs are found to be more likely to face a rejection on their loan applications and to have a higher average product of capital, a sign of gender-driven ca...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Morazzoni, Marta, Sy, Andrea
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/58647
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/58647
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2022.03.007
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Entrepreneurship
Misallocation
Aggregate productivity
Gender gaps
Financial constraints
Descripción
Sumario:We document and quantify the effect of a gender gap in credit access on both entrepreneurship and input misallocation in the US. Female entrepreneurs are found to be more likely to face a rejection on their loan applications and to have a higher average product of capital, a sign of gender-driven capital misallocation that decreases in female-led firms’ access to finance. These results are not driven by differences in observable individual or businesses characteristics. Calibrating a heterogeneous agents model of entrepreneurship to the US economy, we show that the observed gap in credit access explains the bulk of the gender differences in capital allocation across firms. Eliminating such credit imbalance is estimated to potentially increase output by 4%, and to reduce capital misallocation by 12%.