Economic crisis, women entrepreneurs and bank loans: some empirical evidence from Italy

This paper presents the main findings from an empirical research project, whose aim was to answer the following research questions: (1) Did men and women entrepreneurs ask for new bank loans during the crisis? (2) Did they obtain required bank loans at the same conditions? (3) Which variables, other than gender, influence access to bank credit? Data show that firms were very cautious in access to finance during the crisis and female-led firms asked for bank loans more rarely than male-led ones. Entrepreneurs' gender, age and education, banking history and industry only slightly affected access to credit during the crisis.