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Publications
  • March 2022
  • Article
  • Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis

Gender Gaps in Venture Capital Performance

By: Paul A. Gompers, Vladimir Muhkarlyamov, Emily Weisburst and Yuhai Xuan
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

We explore gender differences in performance in a comprehensive sample of venture capital investments in the United States. Investments by female venture capital investors have significantly lower success rates than investments by their male colleagues when controlling for personal characteristics, including employment and educational history, and portfolio companies’ characteristics. The gender differences in investment outcomes are not due to female investors being less skilled but, rather, are largely attributable to female investors receiving less benefit from the track records of their colleagues. Performance differences disappear in older, larger firms and firms with other female investors. This supports the view that formal feedback mechanisms and hierarchies are potentially useful in ameliorating the female performance gap.

Keywords

Venture Capital; Investment; Performance; Gender

Citation

Gompers, Paul A., Vladimir Muhkarlyamov, Emily Weisburst, and Yuhai Xuan. "Gender Gaps in Venture Capital Performance." Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 57, no. 2 (March 2022): 485–513.
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Paul A. Gompers

Finance
→More Publications

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  • The Market for CEOs: Evidence from Private Equity By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov
  • Private Equity By: Paul A. Gompers and Steven N. Kaplan
  • Failing Just Fine: Assessing Careers of Venture Capital-backed Entrepreneurs via a Non-wage Measure By: Natee Amornsiripanitch, Paul Gompers, George Hu, Will Levinson and Vladimir Mukharlyamov
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