Funding female entrepreneurs in North Africa: self-selection vs discrimination? MSMEs, the informal sector and the microfinance industry

IF 3.1 Q2 BUSINESS
I. Berguiga, P. Adair
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引用次数: 4

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to address the following research question: Is loan funding to female entrepreneurs in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco affected by self-selection from borrowers or/and discrimination from lenders? This paper sheds light on empirical literature review, which displays mixed evidence.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a pooled sample of 3,896 businesses in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia drawn from the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES). Despite selection biases and overweighing, the sample provides descriptive statistics upon gender ownership and gender management (human capital characteristics and financial data). The authors design two regression logistic models with interaction to investigate loan demand and loan granting with respect to self-selection vs discrimination. Female management is disentangled from female ownership with respect to entrepreneurship.FindingsNeither self-selection nor discrimination affects female owners compared with their male counterparts, whereas female managers do self-select themselves. In as much as the WBES female subsample include several biases, the authors eventually emphasise the importance of the non-surveyed informal sector, which includes most (micro-)businesses, and loan funding provided by the microfinance industry to these female businesses. Microfinance fills the gap for working capital but not for fixed assets. The size of the business is a major factor explaining both self-selection and discrimination.Research limitations/implicationsFindings of this study have important policy implications for closing the gender gap in accessing finance. In addition to supply-side factors, demand-side factors should be addressed. Informality also needs to be addressed, as many micro and small enterprises owned or managed by women are informal entities without registration or/and social protection. One way to increase women's demand for financial services is to introduce financial products to meet their needs (e.g. social protection basic coverage). Governments can help develop these new products by strengthening the microfinance industry with a favourable regulatory and institutional framework. The authors also wonder about the extension of this study. Thus, a new cross-sectional analysis of the most recent surveys in the North African region would allow the authors to enlarge the overall sample and measure the evolution of the gender gap over time.Originality/valueSo far, funding female entrepreneurship remained little investigated in these North African countries. Several sampling biases in the WBES – small businesses underestimation and manufacturing industry overweighting, which have been overlooked so far, explain the absence of self-selection and discrimination. In contrast, size plays an important role. Hence, the focus on microenterprises (the informal sector) and the microfinance industry suggests indeed that female entrepreneurs operating in small businesses have to cope with both self-selection and discrimination.
资助北非女企业家:自我选择与歧视?中小微企业、非正规部门和小额信贷行业
目的本文旨在解决以下研究问题:埃及、突尼斯和摩洛哥女性企业家的贷款资金是否受到借款人的自我选择或/或贷款人的歧视的影响?本文揭示了实证文献综述,其中显示了混合证据。设计/方法/方法作者使用了2013年世界银行企业调查(WBES)中埃及、摩洛哥和突尼斯3896家企业的汇总样本。尽管存在选择偏见和过重,样本提供了关于性别所有权和性别管理(人力资本特征和财务数据)的描述性统计数据。作者设计了两个具有交互作用的回归逻辑模型,从自我选择与歧视的角度考察贷款需求和贷款发放。在创业方面,女性管理层与女性所有权脱钩。与男性相比,自我选择和歧视都不会影响女性所有者,而女性管理者会自我选择。尽管WBES女性子样本包含了一些偏见,但作者最终强调了包括大多数(微型)企业在内的未经调查的非正规部门以及小额信贷行业向这些女性企业提供的贷款资金的重要性。小额信贷填补了流动资金的缺口,但没有填补固定资产的缺口。企业的规模是解释自我选择和歧视的一个主要因素。研究局限性/含义本研究的结果对缩小获得资金方面的性别差距具有重要的政策意义。除了供应方面的因素外,还应处理需求方面的因素。还需要解决非正式问题,因为妇女拥有或管理的许多微型和小型企业都是没有登记或(或)社会保护的非正式实体。增加妇女对金融服务需求的一种方法是推出满足她们需求的金融产品(例如社会保护基本保险)。政府可以通过有利的监管和体制框架来加强小额信贷行业,从而帮助开发这些新产品。作者们还对这项研究的扩展性表示怀疑。因此,对北非地区最近的调查进行新的横断面分析,将使作者能够扩大总体样本,并衡量性别差距随时间的演变。创意/价值迄今为止,这些北非国家对资助女性创业的调查很少。WBES中的几个抽样偏差——小企业低估和制造业高估,到目前为止一直被忽视,解释了没有自我选择和歧视。相比之下,尺寸起着重要作用。因此,对微型企业(非正规部门)和小额信贷行业的关注确实表明,在小企业中经营的女企业家必须应对自我选择和歧视。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
7.40
自引率
15.60%
发文量
15
期刊介绍: Launched in 2009, the International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship (IJGE) aims to facilitate the natural evolution of the field of gender and entrepreneurship by drawing together the very best research contributions from around the world. The journal seeks to: -Provide a dedicated publication outlet for high calibre, international research of interest to scholars, entrepreneurs and policy makers in the field of gender and entrepreneurship -Offer a unique perspective on the practice of gender and entrepreneurship by including sections dedicated to practitioner and policy content -Support a more consistent global approach to the presentation of research in the field -Platform the work of dynamic young researchers and those who are in a position to offer new perspectives on this particular research area -Enable those active in the area as researchers, educators, trainers, practitioners, support personnel and policy makers to keep up to date with the field on an international level. The coverage of the journal includes, but is not limited to: Entrepreneurship, Female/Women’s entrepreneurship , Business, Management, Strategy, Gender, Economics, Internationalization, Marketing.
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