The Role of Geography and Gender in Telecommunications Standards Participation

Do meeting locations shape who influences telecom standards? Using quasi-random variation generated by 3GPP rules that rotate venues across cities, we study attendance at 2,241 working group meetings (1999–2018). In a gravity-style linear probability model, geographic distance and national borders sharply reduce individual participation, even after controlling for role, seniority, and inventive activity. Crucially, the distance penalty is substantially larger for women and cannot be explained by differences in experience or technical expertise. By contrast, participation by core firms and senior technical leaders is comparatively insensitive to travel frictions. These results show that, despite cheaper communication and abundant air connections, spatial barriers still govern access to standard-setting and can tilt representation in a key arena of innovation policy.