Friendship at Work: Can Peer Effects Catalyze Female Entrepreneurship? /

Does the lack of peers contribute to the observed gender gap in entrepreneurial success, and is the constraint stronger for women facing more restrictive social norms? We offered two days of business counseling to a random sample of customers of India's largest women's bank. A random subsa...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Weitere Titel:
Friendship at Work
1. Verfasser:
Field, Erica
Körperschaft:
National Bureau of Economic Research
Weitere Verfasser:
Jayachandran, Seema, Pande, Rohini, Rigol, Natalia
Format:
Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:
Englisch
Veröffentlicht:
Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2015.
Zusammenfassung:
Does the lack of peers contribute to the observed gender gap in entrepreneurial success, and is the constraint stronger for women facing more restrictive social norms? We offered two days of business counseling to a random sample of customers of India's largest women's bank. A random subsample was invited to attend with a friend. The intervention had a significant immediate impact on participants' business activity, but only if they were trained in the presence of a friend. Four months later, those trained with a friend were more likely to have taken out business loans, were less likely to be housewives, and reported increased business activity and higher household income. The positive impacts of training with a friend were stronger among women from religious or caste groups with social norms that restrict female mobility.
Umfang:
1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
Anmerkungen:
April 2015.
Schlagworte: