Access to credit by SMEs in South Asia: do women entrepreneurs face discrimination

This study investigates gender balance in the credit market for small and medium enterprise (SME) finance in South Asia. This study is significant in that it provides insights for emerging economies into the danger of second-best solutions resulting from capital market imperfections. Using data sourced from World Bank Enterprise Surveys, it recognises the likely endogeneity of gender in credit constraints. Using IV-probit estimation we find that enterprises owned by female entrepreneurs are on average 3% less likely to be credit constrained compared to their male counterparts.