In this article we examine the rate at which patent applications are granted as a function of the inventor's race and gender. Empirical analysis of more than 3.9 million U.S. applications finds minority and women applicants are significantly less likely to secure a patent relative to the balance of inventors. Further analysis indicates that a portion of this bias is introduced during prosecution at the Patent Office, independent of the quality of the application. Mechanisms underlying these disparities are explored. The article concludes with a discussion of our results and their interaction with patent law, innovation policy, and employment trends.

中文翻译：

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专利授予率与种族和性别关系的实证研究

在本文中，我们将根据发明人的种族和性别来审查授予专利申请的比率。对超过390万美国申请进行的经验分析发现，相对于发明人的其余部分，少数族裔和女性申请人获得专利的可能性大大降低。进一步的分析表明，这种偏见的一部分是在专利局起诉期间引入的，与申请的质量无关。探索了这些差异的潜在机制。本文最后讨论了我们的结果以及它们与专利法，创新政策和就业趋势的相互作用。