Gender, ethnicity and SMEs’ access to finance: a systematic literature review of global empirical evidence

We systematically survey the global empirical evidence on gender and ethnicity implications of small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) access to finance in the last two decades. We find overwhelming evidence that women-owned SMEs encounter greater financial constraints, and seek less financing, in comparison to men-owned SMEs. Borrowing discouragement and fear of being rejected by creditors are identified as leading causes of women’s non-participation in external borrowing. We find scarce evidence of systematic gender-based discrimination by lenders. However, there is evidence that women face higher interest and rejection rates and stringent lending criteria compared to men. We find that ethnic-minority-owned SMEs experience greater financial constraints. In the USA, evidence of ethnicity-based-discrimination is found; however, it is not common across the world. Our findings also show that ethnic-minority-owned SMEs demand for and ability to obtain external finance decreases further during and after economic crisis periods. We provide avenues for further research.