Gender diversity, R&D teams and patents: An application to Spanish firms

Mercedes Teruel and Segarra Blasco, Agustí, 1958-

Working Papers from Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics

Abstract: Previous results show that gender diversity increases the probability that firms invest in R&D and engage in innovation. This paper explores the relationship between gender diversity of R&D departments and their capacity to patent. Based on the Spanish Community Innovation Survey between 2004 and 2014, we apply a two-step procedure in order to control for endogeneity. Although gender diversity affects OEPM patents negatively, its impact is non-significant for patents with international coverage (EPO, USPTO, or PCT). A relevant result is the fact that the generation of patents is positively affected by the diversity of categories in the R&D labs. Our results highlight that, gender diversity of R&D teams does not play a relevant impact on the capacity of the firm to register patents. However, the diversity according to the professional role in R&D teams exerts a positive influence. In sum, the key question is not the gender diversity per se but the gender diversity jointly with the professional status. JEL Code: O30, O31, J16. Keywords: gender diversity, patent generation

Keywords: Innovacions tecnològiques -- Direcció i administració; Patents d'invenció; Programes d'acció positiva -- Espanya; 33 - Economia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-eur, nep-ino, nep-ipr and nep-sbm
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/307040

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