TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bernhardt, Arielle
AU  - Field, Erica
AU  - Pande, Rohini
AU  - Rigol, Natalia
TI  - Household Matters: Revisiting the Returns to Capital among Female Micro-entrepreneurs
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 23358
PY  - 2017
Y2  - April 2017
DO  - 10.3386/w23358
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w23358
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w23358.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Arielle Bernhardt
Harvard University
Department of Economics
1805 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel:  (617) 495-2144
E-Mail: abernhardt@g.harvard.edu

Erica M. Field
Department of Economics
Duke University
Social Sciences Building
Box 90097
Durham, NC 27708
Tel: 919/660-1800
Fax: 919/684-8974
E-Mail: emf23@duke.edu

Rohini Pande
Yale University
Department of Economics
27 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 06520
Tel: 617-384-5267
Fax: 617-496-8753
E-Mail: rohini.pande@yale.edu

Natalia Rigol
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617-495-5682
E-Mail: nrigol@hbs.edu
AB  - Several field experiments find positive returns to grants for male and not female micro-entrepreneurs. But, these analyses largely overlook that male and female micro-entrepreneurs often belong to the same household. Using data from randomized trials in India, Sri Lanka and Ghana, we show that the gender gap in microenterprise performance is not due to a gap in aptitude. Instead, low average returns of female-run enterprises are observed because women's capital is invested into their husbands' enterprises rather than their own. When women are the sole household enterprise operator, capital shocks lead to large increases in profits. Household-level income gains are equivalent regardless of the grant or loan recipient's gender.
ER  -