University Entrepreneurship and Professor Privilege

Erika Färnstrand Damsgaard and Marie Thursby

No 17980, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper analyzes how institutional differences affect university entrepreneurship. We focus on ownership of faculty inventions, and compare two institutional regimes; the US and Sweden. In the US, the Bayh Dole Act gives universities the right to own inventions from publicly funded research, whereas in Sweden, the professor privilege gives the university faculty this right. We develop a theoretical model and examine the effects of institutional differences on modes of commercialization; entrepreneurship or licenses to established firms, as well as on probabilities of successful commercialization. We find that the US system is less conducive to entrepreneurship than the Swedish system if established firms have some advantage over faculty startups, and that on average the probability of successful commercialization is somewhat higher in the US. We also use the model to perform four policy experiments as suggested by recent policy debates in both countries.

JEL-codes: O3 O33 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-ent, nep-ipr and nep-pr~
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Erika Färnstrand Damsgaard & Marie C. Thursby, 2013. "University entrepreneurship and professor privilege," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 183-218, February.

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Journal Article: University entrepreneurship and professor privilege (2013)
Working Paper: University Entrepreneurship and Professor Privilege (2012)
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