Gendered Access to Finance: The Roles of Team Formation, Idea Quality, and Implementation Constraints in Business Evaluations

We analyze gender bias in entrepreneurship finance. Access to finance is crucial for entrepreneurial success, yet women are particularly constrained. We structurally unpack whether loan officers evaluate business ideas and implementation constraints differently for male and female entrepreneurs, for both individual entrepreneurs and for entrepreneurial teams. In a lab-in-the-field experiment with Ugandan loan officers, we document gender bias against individual female entrepreneurs, but no bias for entrepreneurial teams. The bias is not driven by animus but by differential beliefs about women’s implementation constraints in running a business. Policies aimed at team formation and alleviating family-related constraints may help to promote equal access to finance, ultimately stimulating growth.