Female Firm Owners, Obstacles to Business, and Technology Use in Kenya Nidhiya Menon Brandeis University Version: May 31, 2013 Abstract Kenyan firms rely on technology to overcome obstacles associated with excessive regulations, poor infrastructure and widespread corruption. This study shows that reliance on technologies such as email, website and the internet for communication purposes has significant positive impacts on productivity mainly for firms with one or more female owners. Using a sample of enterprises in representative industries, the exogenous component of technology use is isolated by using information on the regional presence of mission, private and government schools from colonial Kenya as well as a geographical indicator measuring rainfall shocks. These instruments pass a series of robustness checks on relevance and they satisfy the exclusion restriction. Results indicate that for firms with female owners, a 10 percent increase in technology use results in a 1.69 percentage point increase in value-added per worker. For male-owned firms, a positive effect is evident but significantly more muted. Keywords: Communications Technology, Obstacles, Colonial Education, Kenya, Firms, Female Owners JEL Classification Codes: O14, O33, L22, N37 Thanks to Jenny Aker, Kristin Butcher, Judith Dean, Alain de Janvry, Marcel Fafchamps, Kathryn Graddy, Asim Khwaja, Martin Laffin, Phillip Levine, Isaac Mbiti, Rachel McCulloch, Dilip Mookherjee, Nina Pavcnik, Steven Pischke, John Ritchie, and participants at the 2011 Center for Study of the African Economies Conference at Oxford University, and seminar participants at Boston University, Brandeis University, Wellesley College, Durham University, UK, and the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research, Mumbai. Jing Ren provided excellent research assistance. The usual disclaimer applies. Address for correspondence: Associate Professor of Economics, MS 021, Department of Economics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454. Tel. no.: 781.736.2230, email: nmenon@brandeis.edu.