Gender and SME credit: post-COVID-19 evidence for India

ABSTRACT

Using World Bank Enterprise Survey data for 2022 for India, the article assesses how financing obstacles for women SMEs have evolved in the post-COVID-19 period. The findings reveal that moderate-to-severe financing obstacles appear to have increased. These responses differ across women-owned, women-managed and women-owned-managed firms. Government support during the pandemic appears to have alleviated the financing obstacles to an extent.

KEYWORDS:

• SME
• gender
• COVID-19
• India

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• L26
• J16

Acknowledgements

Comments by two anonymous reviewers on an earlier version is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed and the approach pursued in the paper are strictly personal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The data is publicly available on the World Bank website at [https://login.enterprisesurveys.org]. The analysis is conducted using STATA 15.