Women-Led Firms’ Access to Bank Credit

Nicoletta Berardi and Benjamin Bureau

Working papers from Banque de France

Abstract: This paper documents the existence and evolution of a gender gap in bank financing among non-financial firms, disentangling demand- and supply-side effects. Using quarterly panel data for French firms from 2012 to 2023, we find that this gap is driven by the demand side: women-led firms are between 12% and 26% less likely to apply for bank credit, depending on the type of loan. However, conditional on applying, the probability of rejection for women-led firms does not differ significantly from that of men-led firms. Moreover, we find no evidence that the gender gap in credit demand is closing over time.

Keywords: Finance Gender Gap; Bank Credit; Gender Ask Gap (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E51 G30 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bfr:banfra:1024

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