Gender and the availability of credit to privately held firms: Evidence from the surveys of small business finances. Staff Report, 383, Federal Reserve Bank of

In this study, we analyze differences by gender in privately held U.S. firms, and examine the role of gender in the availability of credit to such firms. Using data from the nationally representative Surveys of Small Business Finances, which span a period of 16 years, we document a series of empirical regularities in differences between male-owned and female-owned firms. Female-owned firms are significantly smaller as measured by sales, assets and employment; younger as measured by firm age; more likely to be organized as proprietorship and less likely to be organized as corporations; more likely to be in the retail trade and business services and less likely to be in the construction, secondary manufacturing and wholesale-trade industries; and have fewer and shorter banking relationships. Female owners are significantly younger, less experienced and less educated. We also find strong univariate evidence of differences in the availability of credit to male- and female-owned firms. More specifically, female-owned firms are significantly more likely to be credit-constrained because they are more likely to be discouraged from applying for credit but not more likely to be denied credit when they apply. However, these differences are rendered insignificant in a multivariate setting where we control for other firm and owner characteristics