Does Gender Matter for Firm Performance? Evidence from Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Sabarwal, Shwetlena ; Terrell, Katherine

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO CAPITAL;    ACCESS TO FINANCE;    ACCESS TO FINANCING;    ACCESS TO FUNDS;    ACCESS TO LOANS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4705
RP-ID  :  WPS4705

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Using 2005 firm level data for 26countries in Eastern and Central Europe, this paperestimates performance gaps between male and female-ownedbusinesses, while controlling for location by industry andcountry. The findings show that female entrepreneurs have asignificantly smaller scale of operations (as measured bysales revenues) and are less efficient in terms of totalfactor productivity, although the difference is small.However, women entrepreneurs generate the same amount ofprofit per unit of revenue as men. Although both male andfemale entrepreneurs in the region are sub-optimally small,women's returns to scale are significantly larger thanmen's, implying that women would gain more fromincreasing their scale. The authors argue that the mainreasons for the sub-optimal size of female-owned firms arethat they are both capital constrained and concentrated inindustries with small firms.