It's Getting Crowded in Here: Experimental Evidence of Demand Constraints in the Gender Profit Gap
Presented by:
Morgan Hardy
Social Science Division
NYU Abu Dhabi
Friday, September 27, 2019
12:00 pm-1:30 pm
Taylor-Hibbard Seminar Room (Rm103)
This paper considers market-level contributors to the well documented gender profit gap amongst micro-entrepreneurs. In a study of Ghanaian garment makers, we combine a firm census and market research survey and find a gender gap in the market-size-to-firm ratio and disproportionate self-reports of “not enough customers" from female owners. We develop a simple model and discuss implications of potential gender differences in demand constraints. As experimental corroboration, we show that female-owned firms expand production and experience profit increases in response to random demand shocks, while male-owned firms do not. Nationally representative data echoes our experimental findings, showing more crowding in female-dominated industries.
Download File(s)