Data and Code for "Closing the gender gap in patenting: Evidence from a randomized control trial at the USPTO"

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Nicholas Pairolero, United States Patent and Trademark Office; Andrew Toole, United States Patent and Trademark Office; Peter-Anthony Pappas, United States Patent and Trademark Office; Charles de Grazia , Ecole de Management Leonard De Vinci; Mike Teodorescu, University of Washington

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  code 12/20/2024 11:18:AM
  graphs 05/01/2024 11:30:AM
  intext_stats 05/01/2024 11:31:AM
  tables 05/01/2024 11:43:AM
README_openicpsr.pdf application/pdf 143.9 KB 01/21/2025 07:18:AM

Project Citation: 

Pairolero, Nicholas , Toole, Andrew, Pappas, Peter-Anthony, de Grazia , Charles , and Teodorescu, Mike. Data and Code for “Closing the gender gap in patenting: Evidence from a randomized control trial at the USPTO.” Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2025. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-07-01. https://doi.org/10.3886/E201255V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary Women are underrepresented in patenting and the gap is not closing quickly. One major roadblock to progress is a dearth of causal evidence on the potential effectiveness of policies to reduce the gender gap in patenting. Analyzing a randomized control trial at the United States Patent and Trademark Office that was designed to provide additional help to applicants who do not have legal representation, we find heterogeneous causal impacts across inventor gender, driven primarily by an increase in successful negotiations by women inventor teams via the use of examiner's amendments. While both men and women applicants benefited, the probability of obtaining a patent was over 12 percentage points greater for women (or, 33 percent relative to the mean grant rate in the control group), and the effects were largest for U.S. inventors and new U.S. inventors. Our results suggest that a portion of the gender gap in patenting could be eliminated through additional assistance during patent examination. 

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
      O31 Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
      O34 Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
      O38 Technological Change: Government Policy


Related Publications

Download this project

Published Versions

V1 [2025-07-01]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

Report a Problem

Found a serious problem with the data, such as disclosure risk or copyrighted content? Let us know.

This material is distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.