Barking up the Wrong Tree? Measuring Gender Gaps in Firm’s Access to Finance

Abstract

The literature on gender-based discrimination in credit markets is recently expanding, but the results are not yet definitive and have not been generally agreed upon. This paper exploits a new dataset on Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, which provides detailed information about female ownership and management in firms for investigating the existence of a gender gap in access to finance. The evidence presented herein suggests that more precise measures of the gender composition of the firm show that women-led businesses are more likely to be financially constrained than other comparable firms.