Gender Gap in High-Growth Ventures: Evidence from a University Venture Mentoring Program
American Economic Review · 2017 · Volume 107 · Issue 5
Abstract
We track high-growth ventures from the idea stage to commercialization and investigate the nature of the gender gap early in the venture lifecycle. Using data on 651 venture ideas that collectively attracted over $700 million in venture financing, we find a significant gender gap among ventures without documented intellectual assets at the earliest stage of founding but not among ventures that already possess intellectual assets. We also find a gender gap in entrepreneurs' readiness to commit to their venture ideas full-time. Conditional on such commitment, there are no significant differences in ventures' access to venture financing or rate of commercialization.
Keywords
Investment Banking, Venture Capital, Brokerage, Ratings and Ratings Agencies, Financing Policy, Financial Risk and Risk Management, Capital and Ownership Structure, Value of Firms, Goodwill, Higher Education, Research Institutions, Returns to Education, Economics of Gender, Non-labor Discrimination, Entrepreneurship, New Firms, Startups
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