The Missing Female Inventors: Family Formation and the Gender Gap in Innovation, with Stefan Obernberger and Arnim Seidlitz

We study how family formation shapes innovation careers and contributes to the gender gap in innovation using linked German administrative and European patent records covering 1.6 million employees in innovation-related jobs. While women account for 36% of innovation workers, they represent only 9% of inventors. We show that this gap emerges around the age of family formation, when women become substantially less likely to transition from innovation work to inventorship. Using a dynamic difference-in-differences design, we find that childbirth causes persistent declines in women's patenting, earnings, and career progression, whereas fatherhood has little effect. Women also anticipate these costs through lower fertility and by delaying childbirth until after their first patent application. Eliminating the realized innovation child penalty would increase the number of female inventors by roughly 30%. Overall, our findings identify family formation as an economically important friction in the accumulation of innovative human capital.

Presentations: American Finance Association (2026), Nova School of Business and Economics, Tsinghua University, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, University of Vienna, European Economics Association (Scheduled), Verein fuer Socialpolitik (scheduled)

Angels and Demons: The Negative Effect of Employees' Angel Investments on Corporate Innovation, with Santanu Kundu

We link data on angel investors in the US to their employment history and show that employers’ innovation output decreases when their employees personally invest in start-ups. Our evidence is consistent with agency conflicts as the reason for lower innovation output. Angel investors divert time and effort from their employer to their personal investments. The effects are more pronounced when angel investments offer stronger financial incentives. In contrast, start-ups benefit from financing by angel investors employed at public firms. We highlight a trade-off between the benefits of angel investors for start-ups and the costs for their employer.

Presentations: European Finance Association (EFA), Paris Finance December Meeting, Northern Finance Association (NFA), Financial Management Association (FMA), International Corporate Governance Society conference (ICGS), European Financial Management Association (EFMA), Entrepreneurial Finance Conference (ENTFIN), Academy of Management (AOM), French Finance Association (AFFI), Future of Growth Conference, Eastern Finance, Financial Markets and Corporate Governance Conference (FMCG), Southwestern Finance Association (SWFA), Student-led Workshop on Entrepreneurial Finance and Innovation (WEFI), Research on Innovation, Science and Entrepreneurship (RISE3) Workshop

Reaction to Early Failure in University: A Regression Discontinuity Design, with Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi

This paper examines gender gaps in persistence in educational attainment. Analyzing the impact of failing the initial mathematics exam on university completion, we show that early academic failure disproportionately undermines male students' persistence in higher education. Utilizing administrative data from a German business school and leveraging a sharp discontinuity at the exam's passing threshold for 8,500 undergraduates, we identify causal effects. The results indicate that female students remain unaffected by failing their first exam, exhibiting greater resilience. In contrast, male students who marginally fail are 14 percentage points (17.5%) less likely to complete their degree. Further analysis, including survey data, suggests that overconfidence and competitiveness create larger negative surprises of failure for male students which may contribute to their higher dropout rates.

Presentations: Verein für Socialpolitik, European Economic Association