Gender discrimination, social networks and access to informal finance of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises
Publication Name
Economic Analysis and Policy
Abstract
The issue of gender discrimination in the informal credit market is under-investigated given that existing studies largely consider formal bank loans. Using a rich dataset on access to informal loans and loan terms of Vietnamese privately-owned manufacturing small and medium enterprises over 2005-2015, this paper finds that female-run firms have a lower propensity to borrow and incur a higher cost of borrowing from informal sources than male-run counterparts. The empirical evidence on gender discrimination is robust to the control of different firm characteristics, firm-specific unobserved heterogeneity, and selection bias. With the potential to mitigate gender discrimination, extended social networks are found to work in favor of female-run firms.
Open Access Status
This publication is not available as open access
Volume
78
First Page
358
Last Page
372
Funding Number
17/HD-CBQT1.2020.17
Funding Sponsor
Đại học Kinh tế Quốc dân