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

Science is fundamental to the innovation process; however, not all scientificideas significantly contribute to shaping technological developments. In thisarticle, we argue that, despite having strong incentives to build on the mostpromising ideas, inventors rely more on research conducted by men than bywomen. We analyze the citations that scientific papers receive in patentedinventions and find that the papers authored by women scientists receivefewer citations, both in a large sample of over 10 million papers and in a smallersample of simultaneous discoveries. We systematically explore the mechan-isms underlying this finding, including an online experiment conducted with400 individuals holding science doctoral degrees. Our results suggest that thegender disparity in patent-to-paper citations is unlikely to stem entirely fromsupply-side mechanisms such as access to resources, networks, and scientificstyle. Instead, the results align with demand-side explanations, in particular thenotion that inventors pay more attention to and place higher value on scientificpublications authored by men. These findings have implications for our under-standing of friction in science-based technology development, as well as forbroader theories of how gender inequality shapes cumulative innovation.