Does Corporate Political Activity (Really) Reduce Borrower Discouragement? The Paradox of Women-Led Firms

Jérémie Bertrand; Caroline Perrin

doi:10.1007/s10693-025-00459-9

Does Corporate Political Activity (Really) Reduce Borrower Discouragement? The Paradox of Women-Led Firms

Jérémie Bertrand^*
, Caroline Perrin

^*Corresponding author for this work

European Law

Université catholique de Lille

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

In this study, we use data from 22,822 women-led firms across 50 countries spanning 2010 to 2020 to challenge the belief that corporate political activities (CPAs) facilitate credit access. We demonstrate that CPAs do not improve access to credit for women-led firms. Furthermore, we provide evidence that these results hold in legal, social, and cultural environments that are unfavorable to women, particularly if they display stronger discrimination. Our findings support the hypothesis that women get more discouraged about credit access because their CPAs provide them with knowledge of the discrimination they face. Our results hold across various robustness checks.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Financial Services Research
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10693-025-00459-9
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 26 Dec 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.

Keywords

Banking
Borrower discouragement
Gender
Political connection

Access to Document

10.1007/s10693-025-00459-9

Cite this

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abstract = "In this study, we use data from 22,822 women-led firms across 50 countries spanning 2010 to 2020 to challenge the belief that corporate political activities (CPAs) facilitate credit access. We demonstrate that CPAs do not improve access to credit for women-led firms. Furthermore, we provide evidence that these results hold in legal, social, and cultural environments that are unfavorable to women, particularly if they display stronger discrimination. Our findings support the hypothesis that women get more discouraged about credit access because their CPAs provide them with knowledge of the discrimination they face. Our results hold across various robustness checks.",

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