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Women made up only 15% of U.S. inventors in 2024. Assuming no intrinsic gender
differences in inventive potential, the scarcity of women in research reveals that the U.S.
is missing out on some of its brightest minds. How costly is this talent misallocation
for aggregate productivity? I develop a model of semi-endogenous growth in which
individuals with heterogeneous talent choose between research and production careers.
However, several barriers deter women from pursuing their comparative advantage.
Lifting those barriers would increase U.S. income per person by 14.1% in the long run,
compared with just 1.5% from a 30% R&D subsidy alone.
