The innovation gender gap in transition countries

Abstract

This paper investigates the sources of the possible gender ownership gap in innovativeness in a set of Transition economies by means of firm-level data coming from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS V) conducted in 2012–2014. Through the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition we highlight the factors explaining the differences in the propensity to innovate between female-owned and male-owned firms. We find that the innovation disparity between firms with females among their owners and those having only male owners is mainly due to the differences in endowment effects. Tangible and intangible assets affect the innovation gap between the two groups of firms.