ABSTRACT
A gender earnings gap has been found among employees in the organizational workplace context. It is unknown if such a gap also exists among entrepreneurs, who are playing a significant role in our economic activities. This study aims to fill this important gap by examining the gender earnings gap among entrepreneurs using data collected from over 5,000 self-employed entrepreneurs in the European Working Conditions Survey. In addition, this study explores the role of information and communications technology (ICT) usage as a potential instrument to close earnings gaps between female and male entrepreneurs. ICT usage may help women to overcome gender-specific constraints on entrepreneurial behaviors and performance. Our results reveal the existence of a ceteris paribus gender earnings gap in entrepreneurship of about 24%. Moreover, we find that increased ICT usage by female entrepreneurs can help considerably in closing the earnings gap, with an estimated realistic potential reduction of the gap of 6.7 percentage points (about one quarter of the gap). Finally, we also find various differences according to types of entrepreneurs.
