Conference Agenda

This paper investigates the mechanisms underlying gender discrimination in bank lending to female entrepreneurs. Using firm-level data on 272,850 micro and small enterprises, the analysis finds that gender disparities in access to finance are more consistent with statistical discrimination than with taste-based discrimination. Operating in female-concentrated sectors, having stronger firm capabilities, and maintaining prior credit relationships all substantially narrow gender gaps in financing success for female entrepreneurs. Additional analysis reveals that female-owned firms exhibit lower business performance relative to their male counterparts, and there is no evidence that banks impose higher screening standards on female entrepreneurs. This study contributes to the literature by explicitly distinguishing between types of discrimination in bank lending and advances understanding of how commercial and government-subsidised credit channels interact in shaping gender disparities in finance. These findings suggest that interventions targeting the informational disadvantages of female entrepreneurs through sectoral inclusion, capability development, and credit history building are more likely to reduce gender disparities in credit access.

We document a negative association between firms’ perceived product market threats and their productivity. This relationship remains robust after addressing endogeneity concerns using instrumental variable estimators and difference-in-differences analyses. Our mechanism tests further reveal that product market threats reduce productivity through tightening financial constraints, raising firm-specific risk, weakening firm profitability, and increasing information asymmetry. Overall, our findings suggest that while moderate competition can enhance efficiency, excessive or destructive threats from rivalry undermine firms’ productivity.

We explore how labor unrest, as a shock to local social stability, prompts state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to adopt socially responsible hiring practices at the cost of productivity. The impact is more pronounced when labor unrest occurs in the industries of the exposed SOEs, local fiscal budgets are strong, governing mayors have better incentives, and local private sectors experience slower growth. While SOEs gain more fiscal benefits, these do not fully offset the associated costs. In contrast, non-SOEs do not respond to labor unrest, and their performance remains unchanged. Various tests address the selection effects of labor unrest. Macro-level results indicate that SOEs can help mitigate the negative economic and social impact of labor unrest.

This paper investigates the effect of management practices on the willingness and the ability of private firms to access credit. Drawing on data from private firms in more than 100 countries over the period 2018–2024, we find that firms with higher quality management practices are more likely to enjoy improved access to credit. Specifically, these firms are less likely to be discouraged from seeking credit (self-rationing) and less likely to be rejected by creditors (credit-rationing). The results persist across a wide range of robustness checks and hold across different economic conditions and cultural contexts. The findings emphasize the role of management practices not only as an internal performance driver and a catalyst for credit acquisition, but also as a credible signal to creditors. Our results contribute to a growing body of literature linking intangible organizational capital to financial outcomes and highlight the importance of management practices in easing credit constraints.