The Myth of Female Credit Discrimination in African Manufacturing

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Abstract

We examine credit constraint differentials between male and female manufacturing entrepreneurs using firm data from 16 sub-Saharan Africa countries. Small enterprises owned by female entrepreneurs are less likely to be credit constrained compared to their male counterparts, while this is reversed for medium-sized enterprises. A generalised Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition shows that the gap is predominantly a pure gender effect. We argue that this finding is mainly due to female favouritism in loans to micro and small firms because the gap is reversed for medium-sized enterprises and because we find no sign of superior female entrepreneurial performance in observable indicators.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Development Studies
Volume50
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)81-96
ISSN0022-0388
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

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