Communication Frictions and the Gender Gap in Access to Credit

Last registered on October 23, 2025

Pre-Trial

General Information

Title

Men from Mars, Women from Venus? How Communication Barriers Transmit Gender Gaps from the Finance Industry to Entrepreneurship

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0017067

Initial registration date

October 22, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

October 23, 2025, 7:40 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Navid Neshat

Affiliation

Tulane University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Yongseok Kim

PI Affiliation

Tulane University

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2025-11-15

End date

2026-06-01

Keywords

Finance & Microfinance, Gender

Additional Keywords

soft information; entrepreneurship; gender gap; communication; loan officers; women

JEL code(s)

G2, J16

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

This study explores how gender affects communication between borrowers and lenders. In partnership with a bank in Afghanistan, we invited micro-entrepreneurs to apply for small loans. Each applicant was randomly informed that their application would be reviewed by either a male or a female loan officer. The applications included standard financial details and a short written explanation of why the borrower’s ability and willingness to repay the loan could be trusted, which we refer to as borrower narratives. By comparing how male and female officers evaluated these narratives, we examine whether women communicate less effectively when the loan officer they face is male. The findings will help us understand how communication barriers contribute to gender gaps in access to finance and how increasing the number of female officers might reduce these disparities.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Kim, Yongseok and Navid Neshat. 2025. "Men from Mars, Women from Venus? How Communication Barriers Transmit Gender Gaps from the Finance Industry to Entrepreneurship." AEA RCT Registry. October 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17067-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

This study examines how borrowers’ written communication in small-loan applications influences loan officers’ evaluations and actual lending outcomes at a partner bank. Eligible micro-entrepreneurs complete standardized, collateral-free loan applications that include a short narrative describing their ability and willingness to repay. Each applicant is informed that their loan will be reviewed by either a male or a female loan officer, with the assigned officer gender determined randomly. All applications are anonymized before review so that loan officers cannot see any borrower identifiers. Loan officers evaluate applications using the bank’s regular scoring procedures, and loan decisions are based on these evaluations. After the evaluation phase, officers complete a short follow-up survey about their review experience. Some details of the study design are temporarily withheld to preserve research integrity and will be made public once data collection and analysis are complete.

Intervention Start Date

2025-11-15

Intervention End Date

2026-06-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Evaluation Score (Likert scale, 1 to 10)

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

The primary outcome is the loan officer’s evaluation score, measured on a scale from 1 to 10, reflecting how likely they believe the applicant is to repay the loan by the maturity date, where 1 indicates “very unlikely to repay.”

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

This study examines how written communication in loan applications affects how applicants are perceived by loan officers. We collaborate with a financial institution to collect anonymized loan applications that include a short open-ended section where borrowers describe their credibility and repayment ability. Professional loan officers evaluate these applications, and the bank’s lending decisions are based on these evaluations. To protect privacy, all applications are anonymized before review, and loan officers cannot see any borrower information that reveals gender or identity. The study aims to better understand how borrower communication influences officers’ assessments. More details of the study are temporarily withheld to preserve the integrity of the research and will be made public once the study concludes.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization is conducted in the office using a computer program.

Randomization Unit

Borrower-level randomization:
The gender of the officer shown to applicants (“male officer” vs. “female officer”) is randomized at the individual borrower application level.

Officer–application-level randomization:
The narrative visibility condition (“Narrative Visible” vs. “Narrative Concealed”) is randomized independently for each officer–application pair.

Officer-level randomization:
In the post-evaluation survey stage, whether borrower gender is revealed in the officer’s feedback report (“Gender Revealed” vs. “Gender Hidden”) is randomized at the officer level.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Approximately 300 borrower applications (individual-level randomization, not clustered) and 50 loan officers (clustered randomization for post-evaluation survey stage).

Sample size: planned number of observations

15,000 applicant-officer

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Borrower-level treatment (unit = application; not clustered)

Officer gender shown = Male:
Planned invitations: 250 borrowers (≈ half female, half male overall sample stratified by borrower gender)
Expected completed applications: ≈150

Officer gender shown = Female:
Planned invitations: 250
Expected completed applications: ≈150

Note: Total invitations = 500 (250 female, 250 male). Expected completed applications ≈ 300 in total, with ≈ 150 per arm.

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Officer–application condition (unit = officer–application evaluation; not clustered)

Narrative Visible: approximately 50 percent of officer–application evaluations

Narrative Concealed: approximately 50 percent of officer–application evaluations

Exact counts depend on the final number of evaluations per application. The split is designed to be 1:1 across all officer–application observations.

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Post-evaluation survey treatment (unit = loan officer; clustered at officer level)

Borrower gender revealed in officer report: 25 clusters (officers)

Borrower gender hidden in officer report: 25 clusters (officers)

Total officers = 50, randomly assigned 25/25 across the two survey arms.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

Indiana University IRB

IRB Approval Date

2025-05-08

IRB Approval Number

26362

Analysis Plan

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