 Girls Just Wanna Have Funds? The effect of women-friendly legislation on female-led firms’ access to creditJérémie Bertrand and Caroline Perrin International Review of Law and Economics, 2022, vol. 72, issue C Abstract: Does a women-friendly legal environment 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 discouragement for women-led firms, but they do not support the attainment of more credit. We demonstrate that enforcement efforts dramatically amplify the effect of women-friendly laws on self-restrictions in terms of credit and enable women-led firms to access more credit. Women are sensitive to the legal environment in which they operate, while banks need strong incentives to change their behavior. This effect is notable with regard to rational discouragement and prevails among smaller firms and in high-income countries. These results are robust to several tests. Keywords: Banking; Gender; Access to credit; Borrower discouragement (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:72:y:2022:i:c:s0144818822000576 DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2022.106101 Access Statistics for this article International Review of Law and Economics is currently edited by C. Ott, A. W. Katz and H-B. Schäfer More articles in International Review of Law and Economics from Elsevier |
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