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    Female Inventors and Inventions
    18 Sep 2019Working Paper Summaries

    Female Inventors and Inventions

    by Rembrand Koning, Sampsa Samila, and John-Paul Ferguson
    Does the gender of inventors make a difference for who benefits from their inventions? Analysis of all U.S. biomedical patents issued between 1976 and 2010 shows that research teams with women were more likely to produce patents addressing women’s health conditions, especially when female researchers led the teams. This link suggests that the dearth of women inventors might also result in fewer female-focused inventions.
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    Author Abstract

    Has the increase in female medical researchers led to more medical advances for women? In this paper, we investigate if the gender of inventors shapes their types of inventions. Using data on the universe of U.S. biomedical patents, we find that patents with women inventors are significantly more likely to focus on female diseases and conditions. Consistent with the idea of women researchers choosing to innovate for women, we find stronger effects when the lead inventor on the patent is a woman. Women-led research teams are 26% more likely to focus on female health outcomes. This link between the gender focus of the scientist and the type of invention, in combination with the rise of women inventors, appears to have influenced the direction of innovation over the last four decades. Our findings suggest that the demography of inventors matters not just for who invents but also for what is invented.

    Paper Information

    • Full Working Paper Text
    • Working Paper Publication Date: July 2019
    • HBS Working Paper Number:
    • Faculty Unit(s): Strategy
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    Rembrand M. Koning
    Rembrand M. Koning
    Assistant Professor of Business Administration
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