Gender effects in crowdfunded business loan campaigns

Abstract

Crowdfunding is a growing source of finance for entrepreneurs. In this paper, we investigate the existence of a gender effect in the time needed to obtain a business loan through crowdfunding. Using data from three Dutch crowdfunding platforms, survival analysis of the time to completion for 934 business loan campaigns shows that female entrepreneurs have a 20% shorter campaign completion time compared to male entrepreneurs, whereas couples do not differ from males. This effect persists across the different platforms. Subsequent analysis shows that female entrepreneurs do not have the disadvantage they face in traditional lending channels when requesting funds through crowdfunding, and that herding behavior by investors benefits female entrepreneurs most.