Gender Discrimination, Entrepreneurial Talent and Self-Employment

Abstract

The trend of female self-employment in Italy is stable, with a low level of participation which confirms the prediction of economic theory on discrimination. We contend that gender discrimination alters the distribution of entrepreneurial talent between employees and self-employed workers. This gives rise to the prediction that the self-employed women are less likely to survive when self-employed than men because the lesser entrepreneurial talent of women will increase their risk of failure. Applying Markovian analysis to ISTAT’s labor market transition matrices we verify this prediction: Many women try to set up on their own, but they fail to remain self-employed both because their lesser entrepreneurial talent and because they try to become entrepreneurs without any previous experience of work. ‘If you think you’re so discriminated against, why don’t you set up on your own?’ Copyright Springer 2005

What Do We Know About The Patterns and Determinants of Female Entrepreneurship Across Countries?

“…Cressy (2006) cites the finding that 50 per cent of firms exit the market after only 18-24 months. Female-owned firm exit rates tend to be higher than those of males across countries (Rosti and Chelli, 2005;Fairlie and Robb, 2009) and their survival rates lower than those of male-owned firms (see for example Mead and Liedholm, 1998). Moreover, in developing countries, firms in rural areas are more likely to fail than firms in urban areas (Liedholh, 2002).…”

“…In the presence of labour market rigidities, this may lead to a self-selection of the most highly talented women into the labour markets. As a result, less talented women will opt for selfemployment, a characteristic reflected in their lower survival rates (see for example Rosti and Chelli, 2005). Improving women's educational status may thus have mixed impacts on firm survival.…”

Balanced skills among nascent entrepreneurs

“…The idea of entrepreneurial skills as a direct expression of innate talent has long been championed in entrepreneurship research (Knight 1921;Schumpeter 1934;Lucas 1978;Silva 2007;Rosti and Chelli 2005). Both personality research (Rauch and Frese 2007) and new genetic research (Shane, et al 2010) provides empirical evidence for this view.…”

Gender discrimination in online peer-to-peer credit lending: evidence from a lending platform in China

“…Such gender discrimination is especially prominent in developing countries (De Mel, McKenzie, & Woodruff, 2009), such as in China. The issue of gender discrimination has been observed in a variety of areas, such as employment and career promotions in labor market (Grün, 2004;Kuhn & Shen, 2013;Wright & Ermisch, 1991), access and utilization of microfinance resources (Carter, Shaw, Lam, & Wilson, 2007;Ge & Qiu, 2007), and educations in personal development (Hensel, 1991;Rosti & Chelli, 2005). While it has long been a frequent topic of discussion by academia, general public, and policy makers, gender discrimination in the financial market, especially in developing countries, still lacks empirical evidence.…”