Getting There and Getting In: How Mobility and Sorting Keep Women out of Top Startup Accelerators

Chuan Chen, Michele Fioretti, Junnan He and Yanrong Jia

No 21657, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Startup accelerators are a leading gateway to venture capital, but top programs often require founders to relocate to a venture hub. From a hand-collected census of U.S. accelerator startups (2008-2011) followed for five years, we estimate a two-sided matching model that separates two channels behind the gender funding gap, geographic mobility and sorting across accelerator tiers. Women raise about 60% less than men over five years; the gap concentrates among non-relocating women, is largest at active-childrearing ages, and vanishes for relocators, while the mobility cost is near zero for men. Removing mobility frictions raises women's match quality but not their tier; reaching the high-funding top tier also requires removing the sorting disadvantage that women face. The 2012 JOBS Act eased the legal barrier and capacity grew tenfold, yet the U.S. VC dollar gap still tripled (2011-2020): closing it needs mobility, sorting, and capacity together.

Keywords: Securities regulation; Gender gaps; Venture capital; Geographic mobility; Two-sided matching; Child penalty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D85 G24 J16 K22 L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06
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Working Paper: Getting There and Getting In: How Mobility and Sorting Keep Women out of Top Startup Accelerators (2026)
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