Gender Differences in Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity: A Moderated Mediation PLS-SEM Analysis

Despite ongoing progress, women continue to show lower entrepreneurial activity compared to men, highlighting the need for further efforts to close the gender gap and enhance women's economic participation. This study examines the drivers of gender differences in Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA), with a focus on the roles of self-perceived abilities and educational attainment. Using a unique dataset of 399,114 observations from 64 countries (2013-2017), we employ Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to explore how an entrepreneurial mindset - defined as self-perceived entrepreneurial abilities - mediates the gender gap in entrepreneurship. The analysis incorporates the moderating effect of educational attainment and controls for micro-level characteristics as well as economic and socio-political variables. Our results confirm that women engage in TEA at lower rates than men. However, this gap narrows significantly when accounting for an entrepreneurial mindset, particularly among individuals with lower educational attainment. Among the highly educated, the mediating effect is weaker, suggesting that structural factors - such as access to networks and resources - may play a more prominent role. These findings deepen our understanding of gender disparities in entrepreneurship and offer valuable implications for policy interventions aimed at promoting more inclusive entrepreneurial environments and greater female economic participation.