Using gender as a theoretical framework, we analyse the dynamics of debt and equity financing during the COVID-19 pandemic for a cross-country sample of 8,921 private firms. We provide evidence of a slight gender bias in debt financing, with creditors favouring female entrepreneurs when dealing with cash flow problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find no evidence of gender bias in equity financing. The results are robust after controlling for a larger number of firm-specific characteristics and selection bias. We challenge the assumption of “gender-based discrimination” in the debt market, speculating that in the context of high uncertainty, prototypical forms of femininity may be advantageous as financial institutions seek to hedge their risk by favouring more conservative borrowers.

我们以性别为理论框架，分析了 COVID-19 大流行期间 8,921 家私营企业的跨国样本的债务和股权融资动态。我们提供的证据表明，债务融资方面存在轻微的性别偏见，在 COVID-19 大流行期间，债权人在处理现金流问题时偏向女性企业家。我们没有发现股权融资中存在性别偏见的证据。在控制了大量公司特定特征和选择偏差后，结果是稳健的。我们对债务市场中“基于性别的歧视”的假设提出质疑，推测在高度不确定性的背景下，典型的女性气质形式可能具有优势，因为金融机构试图通过偏向更保守的借款人来对冲风险。