Gender Gaps in Total Factor Productivity: The Case of Manufacturing SMEs in Ghana

This paper provides evidence on the relative productivity differences between women-owned and men-owned firms in a developing country. We rely on data from a survey of small and medium manufacturing firms in the main industrial hubs of Ghana. We apply unconditional quantile regression and decomposition techniques to estimate the productivity gap between men- and women-owned firms and identify the contributions to the gap at the mean and selected percentiles. Our preferred estimation shows that women-owned firms are more productive at the lower tail of productivity distribution, but less productive at the mean and upper tails. Compositional effects explain the productivity gaps at the lower end of the distribution whilst structural effects are the primary sources of gaps at the upper tail of firm productivity. However, when women-owned firms are identical to men-owned firms in characteristics, the compositional effect is the main source of the productivity gaps. Finally, we do not find evidence of productivity gaps in women-dominated sectors, though these sectors tend to have lower average productivity.