THESIS
2020
viii, 63 pages : illustrations ; 30 cm
Abstract
The gender gap in entrepreneurship undermines economic growth, which emphasizes the importance
of understanding what impedes business formation by women. Utilizing a staggered
reform that granted women from specific religious groups inheritance rights equal to men, I examine
whether relaxing financial constraints in the presence of discriminatory social norms fosters
entrepreneurship among women. Exploiting variation in inheritance rights across gender and religion,
I find that the reform significantly increased firm creation by women without worsening the
quality of new entrants. Post reform, collateral enables financial inclusion and leads to business
formation. Overall, results suggest that improved access to finance can narrow the gender gap in
entrepreneurship, even in the...[
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The gender gap in entrepreneurship undermines economic growth, which emphasizes the importance
of understanding what impedes business formation by women. Utilizing a staggered
reform that granted women from specific religious groups inheritance rights equal to men, I examine
whether relaxing financial constraints in the presence of discriminatory social norms fosters
entrepreneurship among women. Exploiting variation in inheritance rights across gender and religion,
I find that the reform significantly increased firm creation by women without worsening the
quality of new entrants. Post reform, collateral enables financial inclusion and leads to business
formation. Overall, results suggest that improved access to finance can narrow the gender gap in
entrepreneurship, even in the presence of discriminatory social norms.
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