Female Business Leaders, Business and Cultural Environment, and Productivity around the World

Fang, Sheng ; Goh, Chorching ; Roberts, Mark ; Xu, L. Colin ; Zeufack, Albert

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: GENDER;    FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS;    SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZE ENTERPRISE;    COMPETITION;    CURRUPTION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-9275
RP-ID  :  WPS9275

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Studies of female business leaders andeconomic performance are rarely conducted with worldwideobservational data, and with considerations on theunderlying cultural, institutional, and businessenvironment. This paper uses worldwide, firm-level data frommore than 100 countries to study how female-headed firmsdiffer from male-headed firms in productivity level andgrowth, and whether the female leader performance disparityhinges on the underlying environment. Female-headed firmsaccount for about 11 percent of firms and are more prevalentin countries with better rule of law, gender equality, andstronger individualistic culture. On average, female-headedfirms have 9 to 16 percent lower productivity and 1.6percentage points lower labor productivity growth, comparedwith male-headed firms. The disadvantage is mainly inmanufacturing firms, largely nonexistent in service firms,and present in relatively small firms. Although the femaleleader performance disadvantage is surprisingly not relatedto gender equality, it is smaller where there islessemphasis on personal networks (better rule of law, lowertrade credit linkages, lower usage of bank credit, and moreequalizing internet), less competition, and the culture ismore collective. The study does not find that the femaleleader disadvantage is amplified in corrupt environments.Africa differs significantly in that it features lowerfemale disadvantage, stronger female advantage in servicesrelative to manufacturing, and stronger sensitivity offemale business leaders to electricity provision and bankcredit access.