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Does Female Bank Leadership Affect Firm Credit?

Author

Listed:
  • Axelle Heyert

    (LaRGE Research Center, Université de Strasbourg)

  • Laurent Weill

    (LaRGE Research Center, Université de Strasbourg)

Abstract

This study examines how female bank leadership influences firms’ bank debt. We combine bank-level and firm-level data to construct a sample of about 116,000 firms from eleven European countries. We hypothesize that higher female bank leadership leads to lower firms’ bank debt, consistent with the view of higher risk aversion for women relative to men. We find that female bank leadership reduces firms’ bank debt. This effect varies with the maturity of bank debt, as female bank leadership contributes to lower long-term bank debt but higher short-term bank debt. We also find that female bank leadership exerts a lower detrimental impact on firms’ bank debt for female-led companies. Overall, our results indicate that greater female bank leadership can hamper access to credit of firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Axelle Heyert & Laurent Weill, 2024. "Does Female Bank Leadership Affect Firm Credit?," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2024-08, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lar:wpaper:2024-08
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    File URL: http://ifs.u-strasbg.fr/large/publications/2024/2024-08.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    banking; gender; access to credit.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets

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