Credit

Investing in women: what women-led businesses in Italy and the UK need

Investing in women: what women-led businesses in Italy and the UK need

Investing in women: what women-led businesses in Italy and the UK need

On January 22nd I have presented the report Investing in women: what women-led businesses in Italy and the UK need, written in collaboration with Paola Subacchi and funded by the UK Embassy in Rome. 

The report can be downloaded here

The slides (in Italian) can be downloaded here.

Credit Access in Latin American Enterprises

Credit Access in Latin American Enterprises

A chapter co-authored with Andrea Presbitero on firm access to bank credit in Latin America was published in Firm Innovation and Productivity in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Engine of Economic Development edited by Matteo Grazzi and Carlo Pietrobelli. The paper is also published in Economic Notes.

The complete book can be downloaded here and our chapter is here

Is access to credit a constraint for Latin America enterprises? An empirical analysis with firm-level data

MOFiR WP #101

With Andrea Presbitero

An intense process of deregulation and financial liberalization in Latin America has increased competitive pressures and led to bank restructuring and consolidation. This paper looks at firm access to credit in the region, focusing on the role of credit market structure. Using firm-level data from theWorld Bank Enterprise Survey, we find that access to bank credit is very heterogeneous. On average, smaller and less productive firms are less likely to apply for credit and more likely to be financially constrained.

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Barking up the wrong tree? Measuring gender gaps in firms’ access to finance

Barking up the wrong tree? Measuring gender gaps in firms’ access to finance

Journal of Development Studies, 50, 10, 1430-1444

The article is written in collaboration with Andrea Presbitero and Claudia Piras.

The literature on gender-based discrimination in credit markets is recently expanding but the results are not yet definitive. This paper exploits a new dataset on Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and finds 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.

Free download

Geographical Distance and Moral Hazard in Microcredit: Evidence from Colombia

Geographical Distance and Moral Hazard in Microcredit: Evidence from Colombia

Journal of International Development, 26(1): 91-108

An article written with Andrea Presbitero.

Recent years have seen an intense and critical debate about the impact of microcredit on entrepreneurial activities and poor households’ welfare. This paper suggests that information asymmetries in the ex-post loan arrangement between the micro_nance institution (MFI) and local borrowers could partially explain the limited impact of microcredit. The physical distance separating borrowers from the MFI could be considered as a proxy of agency costs, increasing the costs of monitoring and easing moral hazard. The estimation of the e_ect of distance on the borrower’s self-assessed outcome of a microcredit project in Colombia con_rms the presence of moral hazard in the microcredit market, with agency costs increasing with geographical distance.

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Definitions matter. Measuring gender gaps in firms’ access to credit

IADB discussion paper, 314, Inter American Development Bank, Washington.

With C. Piras and A. Presbitero

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.

Download the pdf, WP IADB 2013-10