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KDI 경제교육·정보센터

ENG
  • 경제배움
  • Economic

    Information

    and Education

    Center

최신자료
The Missing Half of Capital : Unlocking Finance for Women-Led Firms in Europe and Central Asia
World Bank
2026.08.05
This paper analyzes why women-owned and led small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe and Central Asia face persistent ?nancing gaps and discusses ways to reduce them. Using a journey-mapping framework, the paper identi?es 49 barriers faced by women-entrepreneurs in accessing debt and equity ?nance across three domains: demand-side frictions, supply-side frictions, and ecosystem-level constraints. Drawing on available evidence, the paper documents the presence of 13 barriers in Europe and Central Asia, including limited collateral, unfavorable loan terms, loan officer bias and misaligned incentives, regulatory gaps, and informational asymmetries. The paper reviews 27 interventions from global experience that have been evaluated as mechanisms to relax these constraints. For debt ?nancing, these include asset-collateralized lending, psychometric credit scoring, ?exible and innovative contract structures, tailored products for women, and incentive reforms for loan officers. For equity ?nancing, the evidence points to investment-readiness programs, promotion-focused pitch strategies, and approaches to reduce investor bias by exposing investors to role models and sector-speci?c information. Further, digital ?nancial services can lower entry barriers and expand alternative credit data; however, more sex-disaggregated evidence is needed to establish causal pathways in relevant contexts in Europe and Central Asia. Finally, the paper proposes three priorities: (i) systematically diagnosing and prioritizing constraints using sex-disaggregated data; (ii) adapting and scaling interventions with demonstrated effectiveness while continuing to innovate where evidence remains thin (particularly in equity ?nancing); and (iii) embedding rigorous monitoring, evaluation, and documentation to accelerate learning and supporting effective scale-up.