Gender and Banking: Are Women Better Loan Officers?*

Beck, Thorsten; Behr, Patrick; Guettler, Andre

doi:10.1093/rof/rfs028

Cited by 201 publications

(176 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…A female leader is able to identify the needs of their female customers and, thus, design a product strategy that is better suited to them. This matching argument mirrors the argument by Beck et al (2013) who argue that women are able to build a better trust relationship with clients.…”

Section: 2 Competence Of Female Leaderssupporting

confidence: 62%

Female Leaders and Financial Inclusion. Evidence from Microfinance Institutions

2016

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This research advances the hypothesis that female leaders -chief executive officers (CEOs), chairs, and directors -of a microfinance institution (MFI) give more priority to the poorest families in loan provision than male leaders do. We differentiate between a depth and a width dimension of financial inclusion. The data set is a unique global panel of MFIs collected from MFI raters' reports. Our sample is also unique in the sense that about one-third of all MFIs have a female CEO. The problem of endogeneity for the female leader is resolved by running Heckman's two-step endogenous dummy variable estimation with an instrument for the female leader. We find evidence of greater depth financial inclusion (smaller average loans, more gender bias) with a female leader but not for width financial inclusion (credit client growth). Female leaders exhibit greater altruism and greater competition avoidance but not greater risk aversion than male peers. ABSTRACTThis research advances the hypothesis that female leaders -chief executive officers (CEOs), chairs, and directors -of a microfinance institution (MFI) give more priority to the poorest families in loan provision than male leaders do. We differentiate between a depth and a width dimension of financial inclusion. The data set is a unique global panel of MFIs collected from MFI raters' reports. Our sample is also unique in the sense that about one-third of all MFIs have a female CEO. The problem of endogeneity for the female leader is resolved by running Heckman's two-step endogenous dummy variable estimation with an instrument for the female leader. We find evidence of greater depth financial inclusion (smaller average loans, more gender bias) with a female leader but not for width financial inclusion (credit client growth). Female leaders exhibit greater altruism and greater competition avoidance but not greater risk aversion than male peers. JEL codes: G34; M12; M14

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Section: 2 Competence Of Female Leaderssupporting

confidence: 62%

Female Leaders and Financial Inclusion. Evidence from Microfinance Institutions

2016

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“…The results presented in Table 4 show no significant gender or experience effect in loan officer accuracy. These results are not necessarily in conflict with the results of Beck et al (2013). Beck et al (2013) focus on loan performance rather than accuracy and show that the interplay between the loan officers' and the clients' characteristics (such as gender) is important.…”

Section: ) Inmentioning

confidence: 56%

“…Beck et al (2013) find that the loan portfolios of female loan officers perform better than those of male loan officers. Since the effect is most pronounced when female loan officers handle loans of female borrowers, they conclude that female loan officers are better in building trust relationships with their clients.…”

Section: Identificationmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…Previous research has shown that loan officers' lending decisions and performance are also related to their gender (Beck et al, 2013) and experience (Andersson, 2004;Bruns et al 27 An additional concern could be that low and high numeracy loan officers experience arrear events of the loans that they granted before the crisis at different points in time, which could systematically influence their screening behavior during the crisis. When we compare Kaplan-Meier survival estimates (available upon request) for loans disbursed in the pre-crisis period by low, medium and high numeracy loan officers, we do not find systematic differences in the timing when arrears occur.…”

Section: The Influence Of Gender and Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other papers focus on loan officers' characteristics that might explain why certain loan officers perform better within a given organizational and incentive structure. Existing work looks at the influence of loan officers' gender (Beck et al, 2013), experience (Andersson, 2004;4 Joensen and Nielsen (2009) show that higher earnings are mainly the results of differences in career paths and not of differences in earnings of individuals following a comparable career path.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Numeracy and the Quality of On-the-Job Decisions: Evidence from Loan Officers

2017

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Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Numeracy and the quality of on-the-job decisions:Evidence from loan officers Martin Brown*, Karolin Kirschenmann** and Thomas Spycher*** July 2017Abstract We examine how the numeracy level of employees influences the quality of their on-thejob decisions. Based on an administrative dataset of a retail bank we relate the performance of loan officers in a standardized math test to the accuracy of their credit assessments of small business borrowers. We find that loan officers with a high level of numeracy are more accurate in assessing the credit risk of borrowers. The effect is most pronounced during the pre-crisis credit boom period when it is arguably more difficult to pick out risky borrowers.

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Does gender diversity on corporate boards increase risk‐taking?

Loukil¹,

Yousfi

2015

Can J Adm Sci

113

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We study the impact of board gender diversity on firm risk‐taking in a developing market. Our study is drawn from a sample of 30 Tunisian‐listed firms between 1997 and 2010. First, we found that women have a risk perception that leads to risk avoidance behaviour: the presence of women directors, even when there is one woman director, is positively associated with cash ratio. Second, we showed no significant relationship between board gender diversity and the propensity to take strategic or financial risk‐taking. Third, the presence of state officer/bureaucrats and/or politically connected women have a positive effect on cash holding and investment opportunities. Finally, we found that foreign investors do not invest in firms with gender‐diverse boards. We conclude with a discussion of contributions to scholarship and practice, and present avenues for future research. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Gender and Banking: Are Women Better Loan Officers?*

Cited by 201 publications

References 32 publications

Female Leaders and Financial Inclusion. Evidence from Microfinance Institutions

Female Leaders and Financial Inclusion. Evidence from Microfinance Institutions

Numeracy and the Quality of On-the-Job Decisions: Evidence from Loan Officers

Does gender diversity on corporate boards increase risk‐taking?

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