Debt-aversion and Female Entrepreneurs: Evidence from China

Seminar abstract

Previous literature documents that female entrepreneurs rely less on debt than male entrepreneurs.

If female-led firms are using less debt because of asymmetric information problems in accessing the credit market, using informal financing channels, which depend on soft information, may allow them to overcome such issues.

The conjecture was tested using data from a unique Chinese survey of SMEs.

The findings show that female entrepreneurs make less use of both formal and informal financing opportunities, suggesting that the differences in debt ratios are not due to asymmetric information barriers for female entrepreneurs.

Although there is no statistical evidence that female entrepreneurs experience stricter lending conditions, the findings do not fully rule out no taste-based discrimination by lenders.

It is also shown that these results are not driven by a lack of productivity efforts from female entrepreneurs.

Finally, less doubt usage may be an optimal choice for female entrepreneurs as they do not experience a lower sales growth.

Booking

This seminar is free to attend with no need to book in advance. We warmly invite you to share with your friends, colleagues and classmates.

Speaker bio

Dr Marta Degl'Innocenti is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods, University of Milan.

Before joining the department in 2021, she was an Associate Professor of Finance and Director of the MSc in International Banking and Financial Studies at the Southampton Business School at the University of Southampton, UK.

Her main research interest are in structure, lending and performance in banking, empirical corporate finance and corporate governance, and board composition.

She is also interested in mutual fund management.

She has published in a range of leading international journals such as the Journal of Corporate Finance, the Journal of Banking and Finance, and the European Journal of Operational Research and Research Policy.