This study investigates whether there is a gender gap in the sale of patents by entrepreneurs and examines whether the personal wealth of female entrepreneurs can compensate for it. Using a sample of 107,697 independent inventors, we overcome the empirical challenge of measuring wealth through a novel approach that leverages Zillow data. We find strong evidence of a gender gap in patent sales, and find it poses a cruel irony for female entrepreneurs. While greater wealth of female entrepreneurs improves their likelihood of patent sale, increasing wealth simultaneously expands the gender gap, making female entrepreneurs increasingly worse off relative to male entrepreneurs except at high affluence. These results underscore the complexity of the challenges facing female entrepreneurs seeking to commercialize using patent sales.

中文翻译：

---

管道、棱镜和专利销售：个人财富如何扩大和缩小创业中的性别差距

本研究调查企业家在专利销售中是否存在性别差距，并考察女性企业家的个人财富能否弥补这一差距。使用 107,697 名独立发明人的样本，我们通过利用 Zillow 数据的新方法克服了衡量财富的经验挑战。我们发现了专利销售中存在性别差距的有力证据，并发现这对女性企业家构成了残酷的讽刺。虽然女性企业家的财富增加提高了她们出售专利的可能性，但财富的增加同时扩大了性别差距，使女性企业家相对于男性企业家的境况越来越差，除了高收入之外。这些结果强调了寻求利用专利销售实现商业化的女性企业家所面临挑战的复杂性。