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Peers and stars: the role of gender among coinventors

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This article examines the role of gender in patent inventors’ collaborations and individual productivity. We study how the time needed by an inventor to eventually become a “star” relates to their portfolio of female and male coinventors, characterised in terms of gender, career seniority and productivity. Our empirical analysis applies different survival models to a sample of almost 100k inventors debuting in 2000 and all their patenting peers, followed over a period of 20 years. We find that being female and having female coinventors is correlated to a longer time to become star and that is not a matter of homopily. Seniority is also correlated to a longer time, while having a star among coinventors to a shorter time, in particular for female inventors. These findings confirm the presence of a relevant gender bias and suggest a potential beneficial mentoring/role model mechanism with stars being a strong catalyst of other stars, especially when among women.

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  • Caviggioli, Federico & Colombelli, Alessandra & Ravetti, Chiara, 2022. "Peers and stars: the role of gender among coinventors," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 202201, University of Turin.
    • Handle: RePEc:uto:labeco:202201
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