Capital, Gender, and Microenterprise Growth in Ghana
Despite the emphasis placed by microfinance organizations on lending to female business owners, evidence from three recent randomized controlled trials has cast doubt on the ability of capital alone to grow female-operated microenterprises: in my o...
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| Format: | Brief |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2011/06/14928455/capital-gender-microenterprise-growth-ghana http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10093 |
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okr-10986-100932021-04-23T14:02:48Z Capital, Gender, and Microenterprise Growth in Ghana Fafchamps, Marcel McKenzie, David Quinn, Simon Woodruff, Christopher ACCESS TO CAPITAL ACTION PLAN BANK POLICY BUSINESSES EQUIPMENT FIRMS INVENTORIES LABOR MARKET MICROENTERPRISE MICROENTERPRISES MICROFINANCE MICROFINANCE ORGANIZATIONS PROFITABILITY RESULTS RETURNS Despite the emphasis placed by microfinance organizations on lending to female business owners, evidence from three recent randomized controlled trials has cast doubt on the ability of capital alone to grow female-operated microenterprises: in my own previous experiment in Sri Lanka women given grants saw no increase in business profits, while the recent randomized trials of microfinance in the Philippines and India also see very little in the way of profit increases when women get loans. One possible interpretation is that female-owned microenterprises in these countries are already operating at their efficient level of capital, which might be very low especially in countries where other labor market options for women are limited. However, an alternative explanation could be that the small scale of many female-owned firms is not efficient, but arises instead from a lack of separation of business and household accounts, and from inefficiencies in the way people allocate assets between them. These inefficiencies might arise from self-control problems, leading owners to not undertake profitable investments, or from external pressure to share with others. 2012-08-13T10:23:59Z 2012-08-13T10:23:59Z 2011-06 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2011/06/14928455/capital-gender-microenterprise-growth-ghana http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10093 English Finance & PSD Impact; No. 14 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Brief Publications & Research Africa Ghana |
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Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
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World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
ACCESS TO CAPITAL ACTION PLAN BANK POLICY BUSINESSES EQUIPMENT FIRMS INVENTORIES LABOR MARKET MICROENTERPRISE MICROENTERPRISES MICROFINANCE MICROFINANCE ORGANIZATIONS PROFITABILITY RESULTS RETURNS |
| spellingShingle |
ACCESS TO CAPITAL ACTION PLAN BANK POLICY BUSINESSES EQUIPMENT FIRMS INVENTORIES LABOR MARKET MICROENTERPRISE MICROENTERPRISES MICROFINANCE MICROFINANCE ORGANIZATIONS PROFITABILITY RESULTS RETURNS Fafchamps, Marcel McKenzie, David Quinn, Simon Woodruff, Christopher Capital, Gender, and Microenterprise Growth in Ghana |
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Africa Ghana |
| relation |
Finance & PSD Impact; No. 14 |
| description |
Despite the emphasis placed by
microfinance organizations on lending to female business
owners, evidence from three recent randomized controlled
trials has cast doubt on the ability of capital alone to
grow female-operated microenterprises: in my own previous
experiment in Sri Lanka women given grants saw no increase
in business profits, while the recent randomized trials of
microfinance in the Philippines and India also see very
little in the way of profit increases when women get loans.
One possible interpretation is that female-owned
microenterprises in these countries are already operating at
their efficient level of capital, which might be very low
especially in countries where other labor market options for
women are limited. However, an alternative explanation could
be that the small scale of many female-owned firms is not
efficient, but arises instead from a lack of separation of
business and household accounts, and from inefficiencies in
the way people allocate assets between them. These
inefficiencies might arise from self-control problems,
leading owners to not undertake profitable investments, or
from external pressure to share with others. |
| format |
Publications & Research :: Brief |
| author |
Fafchamps, Marcel McKenzie, David Quinn, Simon Woodruff, Christopher |
| author_facet |
Fafchamps, Marcel McKenzie, David Quinn, Simon Woodruff, Christopher |
| author_sort |
Fafchamps, Marcel |
| title |
Capital, Gender, and Microenterprise Growth in Ghana |
| title_short |
Capital, Gender, and Microenterprise Growth in Ghana |
| title_full |
Capital, Gender, and Microenterprise Growth in Ghana |
| title_fullStr |
Capital, Gender, and Microenterprise Growth in Ghana |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Capital, Gender, and Microenterprise Growth in Ghana |
| title_sort |
capital, gender, and microenterprise growth in ghana |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2012 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2011/06/14928455/capital-gender-microenterprise-growth-ghana http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10093 |
| _version_ |
1764411805518528512 |