Standing on the Shoulders of (Male) Giants: Gender Inequality and the Technological Impact of Scientific Ideas

Abstract

Science is fundamental to the innovation process; however, not all scientific ideas significantly contribute to shaping technological developments. In this article, we argue that, despite having strong incentives to build on the most promising ideas, inventors rely more on research conducted by men than by women. We analyze the citations that scientific papers receive in patented inventions and find that the papers authored by women scientists receive fewer citations, both in a large sample of over 10 million papers and in a smaller sample of simultaneous discoveries. We systematically explore the mechanisms underlying this finding, including an online experiment conducted with 400 individuals holding science doctoral degrees. Our results suggest that the gender disparity in patent-to-paper citations is unlikely to stem entirely from supply-side mechanisms such as access to resources, networks, and scientific style. Instead, the results align with demand-side explanations, in particular the notion that inventors pay more attention to and place higher value on scientific publications authored by men. These findings have implications for our understanding of friction in science-based technology development, as well as for broader theories of how gender inequality shapes cumulative innovation.

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