Bank credit access and gender discrimination: some stilyzed facts

Based on a broad body of literature that investigates the determinants of gender discrimination in the credit market, we provide some descriptive evidence on women’s access to credit by employing a set of financial viability and socio-economic data for a sample of 11 European countries after the global financial crisis (2009–2013). From our preliminary analysis it emerges that, on the demand side, female firms apply for bank loans less than male firms, and one of the relevant determinants for their decision not to apply is the fear of rejection. On the supply side, when applying, female firms face a higher rate of rejection or receive less bank financing than male firms. No general patterns seem to emerge when crossing micro and macro data, even though at the country level, we detect some correspondence between banking system characteristics, socio-institutional indicators and gender differences in access to formal credit.