The fact that women have different preferences and attitudes compared to men is an established result, both in experimental and survey-based literature. Women tend to be more generous when taking economic decisions (Eckel and Grossman, 1998), more likely to exhibit a cooperative behavior (Eagly and Crowley, 1986), and more trustworthy and less corruptible than men (Ones and Viswesvaran, 1998). Moreover, they favor more often redistribution, support child-related expenditures, and are generally more liberal (see, for example, Edlund at al., 2005, Alesina and La Ferrara, 2005, and Miller, 2008). Such differences in behavior and attitudes may materialize in differential impacts of males and females in leadership positions, both in the private sector and politics. Considering, for instance, company boards, different research findings suggest that more gender diversity is positively associated with firm's performance. Women are becoming increasingly important in fostering entrepreneurial activities (Alecchi and Radovic-Markovic 2013). However, while the literature on the impact of female leaders on firm performance is fertile, comparatively little is known on the main determinants of women's participation as firm leaders, in particular in small and very small firms. We concentrate on women's participation to the economy through self-employment using data from ASIA, a uniquely rich data set on self-employment in Italy. We recover individual data for each self-entrepreneur from fiscal codes, collecting information on gender, nationality, and age. Then, we compute the share of self-entrepreneur women at the municipal level, linking our data to other information available at municipal level, such as demographical variables and other socio-economic aspects. Finally, we focus on female participation in politics and we try to investigate the relation between this aspect and the participation of women in self-employment. In particular, we use the recent reform in municipal elections (approved in the end of 2012) to perform a difference in difference (DiD) analysis to understand whether and to what extent there are positive spillovers among female participation in politics and in the private sector.
Female self-entrepreneurship and the influence of role models: an empirical analysis of Italian Municipalities
Falavigna G;Manello A;
2018
Abstract
The fact that women have different preferences and attitudes compared to men is an established result, both in experimental and survey-based literature. Women tend to be more generous when taking economic decisions (Eckel and Grossman, 1998), more likely to exhibit a cooperative behavior (Eagly and Crowley, 1986), and more trustworthy and less corruptible than men (Ones and Viswesvaran, 1998). Moreover, they favor more often redistribution, support child-related expenditures, and are generally more liberal (see, for example, Edlund at al., 2005, Alesina and La Ferrara, 2005, and Miller, 2008). Such differences in behavior and attitudes may materialize in differential impacts of males and females in leadership positions, both in the private sector and politics. Considering, for instance, company boards, different research findings suggest that more gender diversity is positively associated with firm's performance. Women are becoming increasingly important in fostering entrepreneurial activities (Alecchi and Radovic-Markovic 2013). However, while the literature on the impact of female leaders on firm performance is fertile, comparatively little is known on the main determinants of women's participation as firm leaders, in particular in small and very small firms. We concentrate on women's participation to the economy through self-employment using data from ASIA, a uniquely rich data set on self-employment in Italy. We recover individual data for each self-entrepreneur from fiscal codes, collecting information on gender, nationality, and age. Then, we compute the share of self-entrepreneur women at the municipal level, linking our data to other information available at municipal level, such as demographical variables and other socio-economic aspects. Finally, we focus on female participation in politics and we try to investigate the relation between this aspect and the participation of women in self-employment. In particular, we use the recent reform in municipal elections (approved in the end of 2012) to perform a difference in difference (DiD) analysis to understand whether and to what extent there are positive spillovers among female participation in politics and in the private sector.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
