Access to finance – Mind the gender gap

Abstract

Studies on financial inclusion have focused on the determinants of access to finance but only a few s attempted to examine the impediments that women face trying to access finance. This paper contributes to this literature by understanding the underlying factors of gender gaps in accessing finance using the World Bank Global Findex database for 141 countries over time. We also construct a database combining bank-level data with other variables to examine the association between banking system ownership structure and concentration, the regulatory framework and other socio-economic variables reflecting women’s participation in the labour market and gender disparities in education, income and access to property across countries. Our results suggest that women are more likely to be excluded from the financial sector in countries where: (i) foreign-owned banks have smaller presence; (ii) state-owned banks have a bigger share in the banking system; and (iii) credit information is less available through public and private credit registries, and (iv) gaps between women and men in educational attainment are large. The results are robust to different specifications and alternative measures of financial inclusion.