Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/335199 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
Helsinki GSE Discussion Papers No. 51
Publisher: 
Helsinki Graduate School of Economics, Helsinki
Abstract: 
Only a small fraction of inventors are women. Using Finnish administrative data linked to patent records, I show that educational and occupational sorting explain roughly 54% of the gender gap in patenting rates. The remaining 46% arises because women patent less than men within nearly all occupations, even after controlling for education, high school grades, and employer firm, revealing the pervasiveness of the gender differences in innovation. The career impacts of parenthood are a key mechanism: following their first childbirth, mothers' annual patenting rates decline by roughly 65%, with signs of long-term recovery, whereas fathers' patenting rates rise permanently by about 13%.
Subjects: 
children
gender
innovation
inventors
occupations
parenthood
patenting
JEL: 
O31
J16
J13
J24
ISBN: 
978-952-7543-50-4
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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