Female borrowers and credit constraints in SME loan market: An analyses from the Visegrad countries

Abstract

There is an ongoing issue in entrepreneurial finance that due to gender discrimination in the loan market, the female borrowers are facing more financing difficulties compared to the male borrowers. Considering the fact, the aim of this paper was to analyses the credit constraints experienced by female borrowers in the context of Visegrad countries. Specifically, we wanted to shed light whether gender discrimination phenomenon in SME loan market is also relevant in these countries or not. To understand financing difficulties for female-based firms, this paper utilizes the data provided by the BEEPS (Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey) survey conducted by the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstructions and Development) during the period 2012-2014. By using a sample of 1296 SMEs in these four countries, we found that the SMEs owned by the female borrowers are not being discriminated by banks or external lenders. We found that both male and female borrowers have a similar perception of financing difficulties and getting a similar level of priority while asking for bank loans. Hence, it shows that gender discrimination is not a case in the Visegrad countries. However, we found that borrowers experience can have a positive effect on getting bank loans, that means borrowers with higher experience can facilitate in getting external loans. We also show that firms with an audit report have better access to external loans than firms without an audit report. We did not find any significant evidence that innovative firms are financially constraints than the non-innovative ones. © 2019, Czestochowa University of Technology. All rights reserved.