Purpose

This paper aims to address the following research question: Is loan funding to female entrepreneurs in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco affected by self-selection from borrowers or/and discrimination from lenders? This paper sheds light on empirical literature review, which displays mixed evidence.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use a pooled sample of 3,896 businesses in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia drawn from the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES). Despite selection biases and overweighing, the sample provides descriptive statistics upon gender ownership and gender management (human capital characteristics and financial data). The authors design two regression logistic models with interaction to investigate loan demand and loan granting with respect to self-selection vs discrimination. Female management is disentangled from female ownership with respect to entrepreneurship.

Findings

Neither self-selection nor discrimination affects female owners compared with their male counterparts, whereas female managers do self-select themselves. In as much as the WBES female subsample include several biases, the authors eventually emphasise the importance of the non-surveyed informal sector, which includes most (micro-)businesses, and loan funding provided by the microfinance industry to these female businesses. Microfinance fills the gap for working capital but not for fixed assets. The size of the business is a major factor explaining both self-selection and discrimination.

Research limitations/implications

Findings of this study have important policy implications for closing the gender gap in accessing finance. In addition to supply-side factors, demand-side factors should be addressed. Informality also needs to be addressed, as many micro and small enterprises owned or managed by women are informal entities without registration or/and social protection. One way to increase women's demand for financial services is to introduce financial products to meet their needs (e.g. social protection basic coverage). Governments can help develop these new products by strengthening the microfinance industry with a favourable regulatory and institutional framework. The authors also wonder about the extension of this study. Thus, a new cross-sectional analysis of the most recent surveys in the North African region would allow the authors to enlarge the overall sample and measure the evolution of the gender gap over time.

Originality/value

So far, funding female entrepreneurship remained little investigated in these North African countries. Several sampling biases in the WBES – small businesses underestimation and manufacturing industry overweighting, which have been overlooked so far, explain the absence of self-selection and discrimination. In contrast, size plays an important role. Hence, the focus on microenterprises (the informal sector) and the microfinance industry suggests indeed that female entrepreneurs operating in small businesses have to cope with both self-selection and discrimination.

中文翻译：

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资助北非的女企业家：自我选择还是歧视？中小微企业、非正规部门和小额信贷行业

目的

本文旨在解决以下研究问题：埃及、突尼斯和摩洛哥女企业家的贷款资金是否受到借款人自我选择或/和贷款人歧视的影响？本文阐明了实证文献综述，其中显示了混合证据。

设计/方法/方法

作者使用了来自 2013 年世界银行企业调查 (WBES) 的埃及、摩洛哥和突尼斯 3,896 家企业的汇总样本。尽管存在选择偏差和过重，样本提供了关于性别所有权和性别管理（人力资本特征和财务数据）的描述性统计数据。作者设计了两个具有交互作用的回归逻辑模型，以研究贷款需求和贷款发放与自我选择与歧视的关系。在创业方面，女性管理与女性所有权分离。

发现

与男性同行相比，自我选择和歧视都不会影响女性所有者，而女性管理者会自我选择。尽管 WBES 女性子样本包含若干偏差，但作者最终强调了未经调查的非正规部门的重要性，其中包括大多数（微型）企业，以及小额信贷行业向这些女性企业提供的贷款资金。小额信贷填补了营运资金的缺口，但没有填补固定资产的缺口。企业规模是解释自我选择和歧视的主要因素。

研究限制/影响

这项研究的结果对于缩小获得融资方面的性别差距具有重要的政策意义。除了供给侧的因素外，还应考虑需求侧的因素。还需要解决非正规性问题，因为许多由妇女拥有或管理的微型和小型企业是没有注册或/和社会保护的非正规实体。增加女性对金融服务需求的一种方法是推出金融产品以满足她们的需求（例如社会保护基本覆盖）。政府可以通过有利的监管和体制框架加强小额信贷行业来帮助开发这些新产品。作者还想知道这项研究的扩展性。因此，

原创性/价值

到目前为止，在这些北非国家，对女性创业的资助仍然很少被调查。WBES 中的几个抽样偏差 - 小企业低估和制造业高估，到目前为止一直被忽视，解释了缺乏自我选择和歧视。相比之下，尺寸起着重要的作用。因此，对微型企业（非正规部门）和小额信贷行业的关注确实表明，在小企业中经营的女企业家必须同时应对自我选择和歧视。