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Finance and Gender

Paper Session

Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (EST)

Loews Philadelphia Hotel, Commonwealth Hall B
Hosted By: American Finance Association
  • Laura Field, University of Delaware

Minding Your Business or Minding Your Child? Motherhood and the Entrepreneurship Gap

Valentina Rutigliano
,
University of British Columbia

Abstract

"Women are less likely than men to start firms and female entrepreneurs are less
likely to succeed. This paper studies the effect of childbirth on women’s entrepreneurial
activity. Drawing on rich administrative data from Canada and using
an event study and instrumental variable design, I show that childbirth has substantial
negative effects on women’s founding rates and firm performance, accounting
for a large share of the gender gap in entrepreneurship. The impact spills over
onto workers, who experience a decrease in earnings. The effects are permanent:
entrepreneurial outcomes never recover to their pre-birth levels. The results are
not due to a reduction in risk-taking and cannot be fully explained by household
specialization based on labor market advantage. Childcare availability, progressive
gender norms, and access to credit reduce the adverse effect of childbirth on the
entrepreneurship gap."

Innovation and Motherhood

Clemens Mueller
,
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Stefan Obernberger
,
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Arnim Seidlitz
,
Institute for Employment Research

Abstract

We study the impact of childbirth on the careers of inventors, a predominantly male
occupation. We document pronounced gender differences in post-birth career outcomes.
After childbirth, female inventors are substantially less likely to file patents and the quality
of filed patents decreases. A large share of the decline in patenting can be attributed
to temporary labor market exits, increased part-time work, and reduced job mobility.
Most female inventors postpone childbearing until after filing their first patent application,
underscoring the substantial career costs associated with motherhood. Fathers
also experience declines in innovation output following childbirth, but these effects are
considerably smaller than those observed for women. Both men and women are much
less likely to enter inventive careers after starting a family. Our findings highlight the
challenges of combining parenthood with careers in innovation, particularly for women.

Property Rights and Financial Access

Purnoor Tak
,
London Business School

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of property rights on financial inclusion and subsequent changes in labor market participation and human capital investment. Using hand-collected savings bank data linked to the English census, I exploit the 1870 Married Women’s Property Act, which granted married women ownership of their financial assets. A 10% increase in the population of married women is associated with a 1% rise in accounts and a 1.2% rise in deposit receipts after the reform, indicating greater financial inclusion. In districts with a savings bank, following the reform, female employment increases by ∼3 pp for married women and ∼6 pp for single women, with no change for men. The occupational structure shifts, with married women moving toward low-entry-cost work and single women moving into higher-skill roles that require greater human capital. Girls’ school attendance rises by 9-12%, with no change for boys. These patterns align with an appropriability channel in which greater control over earnings raises the private return to work and skill investment, with savings banks making property rights operative by providing secure, interest-bearing deposits. I develop a theoretical framework emphasizing this complementarity between reduced expropriation risk and enforceable, remunerated saving. These results demonstrate an important role of property rights in encouraging financial participation, and the complementarity of property rights and financial access in employment and education outcomes.

The Male and Female Gap in Home Appraisals

Joshua Bosshardt
,
Federal Housing Finance Agency
Simi Kedia
,
Rutgers University
Tim Zhang
,
University of Texas at San Antonio

Abstract

Using 24 million appraisals for refinance mortgages over the January 2013 to March 2024 period and comparing homes in the same census tract and year-quarter, we find that homes of single female households are appraised for 2.4% less than those of single men. Appraisers make lower adjustments to comparable properties and give worse house condition ratings for single female homes. The gap is less pronounced when borrowers have unisex names and when appraisers have greater exposure to single female homeowners. The lower appraisal values of single female households are associated with higher interest rates, lower loan amounts and lower cash-out amounts in the refinancing. Our findings indicate that the gap in appraisals may be one reason for (female) homeowners’ sluggish refinancing activity and the gap in household wealth.

Discussant(s)
Fabrizio Core
,
Luiss Guido Carli University
Anya Mkrtchyan
,
University of Massachusetts
Audra Boone
,
Colorado State University
Selale Tuzel
,
University of Southern California
JEL Classifications
  • G0 - General