Moreover, when considering productivity differentials between male and female enterprises, it is important to take into account all the resources allocated by the household. Looking at the correlation between marital status and firm productivity, Nordman and Vaillant (2014) observe that among larger firms, being married is positively associated with the value added for firms owned by men but not for those owned by women. This could be because labor contributions of household members are disproportionately allocated to the male enterprise, which in turn increases the productivity of capital in the male-owned firm.

_(ii) Preference for spending on domestic goods and its relation with time and risk preferences_ Various studies suggest that spending priorities vary by gender, and that women tend to direct a higher share of the resources they control towards their children (e.g. Duflo, 2003; Duflo and Udry, 2004). Furthermore, several interpretations of the findings of Fafchamps et al. (2014) in Ghana are relevant here. It could be that distributing the grant in kind may earmark it more clearly for business investment, which would help beneficiaries overcome the lack of separation between business and household budgets. This lack of separation would affect women differently than men in the context of incomplete credit markets if women are responsible for or feel more compelled to allocate their income to household expenditures. Women who received a cash grant substantially increase both their household expenditures and transfers to household members, while the change in expenditures for men who received a similar cash grant is not significant.

Women’s propensity to spend on domestic expenditures may have far reaching consequences. Just like biases in the allocation of household resources, it can affect women’s time horizon but also their attitude towards risk. The need to cover a large share of the household’s daily expenditures may make women more risk averse and/or make it harder for them to set money aside for long-term business investments. Evidence from lab experiments conducted in developed countries suggests that women tend to be more risk averse than men (Croson and Gneezy, 2009). Conversely, evidence on gender differences in time discount rates coming from developed countries (Dittrich and Leipold, 2014) suggests time preferences are not an important gender issue. In both cases, these differences have not thoroughly been studied in Africa. Additional research is necessary to further understand the mechanisms through which gender differences in preferences for different expenditures may play a role in business investment decisions.

# _(iii) Time use/Disproportionate allocation of housework_

Women’s time use is a constraint that is directly linked to the assignment of gender differentiated roles within the household. Women allocate substantially more time than men to housework and childcare, which limits the time they can spend on their entrepreneurial activities. The 2012 World Development Report highlights this trend: in South Africa, women provide 71 percent of the aggregated time spent on housework and care and in Ghana, women remain responsible for 80 percent of the housework on average, even if they contribute more than their partner to the household’s earnings (World Bank, 2012). This shows that some women manage to draw substantial earnings from their activities even 14