AEA Papers and Proceedings
ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)
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