Are early stage investors biased against women?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ewens, Michael; Townsend, Richard R.
• 署名单位: California Institute of Technology; University of California System; University of California San Diego
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2019.07.002
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 653-677
• 关键词: Gender gap; entrepreneurship; Angel investors; BIAS

摘要

We study whether early stage investors have gender biases using a proprietary data set from AngelList that allows us to observe private interactions between investors and fundraising startups. We find that male investors express less interest in female entrepreneurs compared to observably similar male entrepreneurs. In contrast, female investors express more interest in female entrepreneurs. These findings do not appear to be driven by within-gender screening/monitoring advantages or gender differences in risk preferences. Moreover, the male-led startups that male investors express interest in do not outperform the female-led startups they express interest in-they underperform. Overall, the evidence is consistent with gender biases. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.