Are Female-dominated Cancers Underfunded?

• Authors: Ha Luong, Judit Vall-Castello and Lídia Farré.
• BSE Working Paper: 1509 | September 25
• Keywords: gender , cancer research , funding
• JEL codes: I10, I14, I19

This paper investigates the underfunding of female-dominated cancers in Europe and explores the mechanisms underlying the unequal distribution of research grants. Using a novel owned- collected dataset of projects granted by the European Commission under three framework programmes, we show that male-dominated cancers receive 3.7% more funding than female- dominated cancers. Our analysis suggests that this difference is likely driven by the over- representation of male researchers in cancer research and the higher proportion of male members on evaluation panels, which favors funding towards male-dominated cancer projects. We find no suggestive evidence that the funding gap is explained by gender gaps in receiving grants, superior research outputs, or greater disease burden. By uncovering the underfunded situation of female-dominated cancers, this study contributes to our understanding of the allocation of research funding across diseases and its implications for health equity.