Inventor Gender and the Direction of Invention
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 110,
May 2020
(pp. 250-54)
Abstract
We study whether increasing the share of female inventors leads to more biomedical inventions that focus on the needs of women. After accounting for detailed disease-technology, disease-year, and technology-year fixed effects, we find that a 10 percentage point increase in the share of female inventors in a research area yields 1.2 percentage points more female-focused patents. Notably, this effect only holds for female-led invention teams. Areas with a greater share of female inventors in supporting roles do not produce more female-focused inventions. For gender to impact the direction of invention, it appears that women must occupy positions of power.Citation
Koning, Rembrand, Sampsa Samila, and John-Paul Ferguson. 2020. "Inventor Gender and the Direction of Invention." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 110: 250-54. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20201045Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- O31 Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
- O34 Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital