University Innovation and the Professor's Privilege
American Economic Review
vol. 108,
no. 7, July 2018
(pp. 1860-98)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
National policies take varied approaches to encouraging university-based innovation. This paper studies a natural experiment: the end of the "professor's privilege" in Norway, where university researchers previously enjoyed full rights to their innovations. Upon the reform, Norway moved toward the typical US model, where the university holds majority rights. Using comprehensive data on Norwegian workers, firms, and patents, we find a 50 percent decline in both entrepreneurship and patenting rates by university researchers after the reform. Quality measures for university start-ups and patents also decline. Applications to literature on university technology transfer, innovation incentives, and taxes and entrepreneurship are considered.Citation
Hvide, Hans K., and Benjamin F. Jones. 2018. "University Innovation and the Professor's Privilege." American Economic Review, 108 (7): 1860-98. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20160284Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I23 Higher Education; Research Institutions
- L26 Entrepreneurship
- M13 New Firms; Startups
- O31 Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
- O33 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
- O34 Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital