Women and Investment: The Role of Fiscal Policy

Abstract:

From a macroeconomic perspective, investment is the backbone of economic growth. The more investment, particularly in productive activities, the more the economy expands and provides employment that supports future growth. Fiscal policies that support investment to stimulate economic growth need to be gendered in order to improve overall macroeconomic results. Investment by women-owned firms is likely to grow as policies enable women to enter more easily into core industries such as manufacturing, construction, and high tech, create work–life balance infrastructures, and, increase discussion of money and debt among women to limit social barriers. Improving access to bank credit and government finance is key to increasing investment by women-owned firms, and, as a result, it is central to the continued expansion of the macroeconomy.

Keywords:

• bank finance
• economic growth
• entrepreneurship
• fiscal policy
• government finance
• investment
• women

Notes

This is shown in the next section Women-Owned Firms vs. Male-Owned Firms.

Cf. Leclaire (2007: 49–57) for a good summary of sound finance and functional finance.

Here I mean government spending that is not necessarily backed by a bond issue. If the new government spending is backed by a bond issue, then the idea is that asset equals liabilities so there is no new net asset creation.

Again, see Leclaire (2007: 49–57) for a good summary of sound finance and functional finance views.

Third-tier financing is defined as “depth of capital markets.” “It measures access to equity capital for high growth entrepreneurs” (Terjesen and Lloyd 2015: 38).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joëlle Leclaire

Joëlle Leclaire is an associate professor of economics and finance at the State University of New York, Buffalo. This paper was presented at the Twenty-Fourth International Association for Feminist Economics Annual Conference, Berlin, Germany, at the Berlin School of Economics and Law, July 17, 2015. Special thanks to Sarah Rosado, my research assistant, and to the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) for financial support.