On October 27th and 28th, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), IDB Invest and Imperial College London co-organized the 3rd edition of the Accelerating Growth for Women Entrepreneurs Research Conference. The event brought together academics, practitioners and policymakers from around the world, to discuss new research and explore how rigorous evidence can better inform project and policy design to improve impact on women-led SMEs.
Highlights included a keynote speech from Marianne Bertrand, Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, Chicago Booth School of Business, as well as new and upcoming evidence from 8 research papers. Sessions were structured around four thematic sections: increasing WSME lending through innovation, strengthening the enabling environment, improving access to skills, and accelerating high-growth entrepreneurship. The conference also featured a session on opportunities to unlock MSME data for research, a policy panel discussion with high-level experts, and a matchmaking session to foster collaboration between researchers and practitioners.
Organizing and Scientific Committee
J. Michelle Brock (EBRD & Imperial College of London)
Ralph De Haas (EBRD & KU Leuven)
Francesco Loiacono (EBRD & Imperial College London)
Felicia Siegrist (We-Fi)
Patricia Yañez-Pagans (IDB Invest))
Maria Paula Gerardino (IDB)
Miriam Bruhn (World Bank)
Sonia Plaza (World Bank)
Diego Ubfal (World Bank)
Pedro Rosa Dias (Imperial College London)
Selim Gulesci (Trinity College Dublin)
Agustin Hurtado (University of Maryland)
Elisa Macchi (Brown)
Andreas Madestam (Stockholm University)
Ramana Nanda (Imperial College London)
Jennifer Poole (American University)
Silvia Prina (Northeastern)
Simon Quinn (Imperial College London, CEPR)
Maddalena Ronchi (Kellogg)
Karmini Sharma (Imperial College London)
Keynote
- Gender Inequality, Stereotypes and Identity (Marianne Bertrand)
Session 1: Increasing WSMS Lending Through Innovation
- Presentation: Eliciting Client Referrals to Increase Lending to Women Entrepreneurs: Evidence from Vietnam (Russell Toth)
- Discussant (Alejandro Becerra)
- Presentation: Liquidity, Business Development, and Gender: Evidence from Credit Contracts (Selim Gulesci)
- Discussant (Miriam Bruhn)
- Policy Discussant (Fiona Clark)
Session 2: Strengthening the Enabling Environment
- Presentation: Generous to Men or Harsh to Women? Experimentally Unpacking Gender Bias in Lending (Youngjoo Jung)
- Discussant (Silvia Prina)
- Presentation: Rural roads, small business creation, and the gender-gap in entrepreneurship (Lakshmi Naaraayanan)
- Discussant (Pedro Rosa-Días)
- Policy Discussant (Tanvi Jaluka)
Session 3: Unlocking MSME Data for Research
- Presentation (Facundo Cuppi, Mercado Libre)
- Presentation (Nic Rawhani, Vula)
- Presentation (Matt Mims, hiveonline)
- Presentation (Tulsi Parida, VISA)
Session 4: Improving Access to Skills
- Presentation: Individual vs Group Mentoring for Female Entrepreneurship: Experimental Evidence from Small Firms in Urban Peru (Claudia Martínez)
- Discussant (Maddalena Ronchi)
- Presentation: Personal Initiative Skills, Gender Gaps, and Social Norms: Experimental Evidence from Microenterprises in Rural India (Sofia Amaral)
- Discussant (Diego Ubfal)
- Policy Discussant (Sebastian Edreira)
Session 5: Accelerating High-Growth Entrepreneurship
- Presentation: Financing The Next VC-Backed Startup: The Role of Gender (Camille Hebert)
- Discussant (Simon Quinn)
- Presentation: Social Image, Organisational Values and Inclusion: Evidence from a Field Experiment (Tom Schwantje)
- Discussant (Karmini Sharma)
- Policy Discussant (Rodolfo Stucchi)
If you would like access to any presentation for which no link is available, please contact Felicia Siegrist at fsiegrist[at]worldbank.org.
