This study examines the extent to which individual demographic characteristics of owners influence capital structure decisions. Using the Federal Reserve's 2003 Survey of Small Business Finances, we estimate the joint effects of traditional capital structure determinants and manager age, gender,...

This study analyzes differences by gender in the ownership of privately held U.S. firms and examines the role of gender in the availability of credit. Using data from the nationally representative Surveys of Small Business Finances, which span a period of sixteen years, we document a series of...

It is well accepted that access to entrepreneurial finance encourages entrepreneurship and growth. Empirical studies on topic, however, segregate the effect of entrepreneurial finance on entrepreneurship by the source of capital. In this paper, we compare the effect of two main sources of...

We analyze the relation between different forms of debt financing at the firm's start-up and subsequent firm outcomes. We distinguish between business debt, obtained in the name of the firm, and personal debt, obtained in the name of the firm's owner and used to finance the start-up firm....