Inventor Gender and the Direction of Invention

Rembrand Koning, Sampsa Samila and John-Paul Ferguson ()

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2020, vol. 110, 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.

JEL-codes: J16 O31 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20201045

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