Academic Freedom, Private-Sector Focus, and the Process of Innovation

Philippe Aghion, Mathias Dewatripont () and Jeremy Stein ()

No 11542, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We develop a model that clarifies the respective advantages and disadvantages of academic and private-sector research. Our model assumes full protection of intellectual property rights at all stages of the development process, and hence does not rely on lack of appropriability or spillovers to generate a rationale for academic research. Instead, we focus on control-rights considerations, and argue that the fundamental tradeoff between academia and the private sector is one of creative control versus focus. By serving as a precommitment mechanism that allows scientists to freely pursue their own interests, academia can be indispensable for early-stage research. At the same time, the private sector%u2019s ability to direct scientists towards higher-payoff activities makes it more attractive for later-stage research.

JEL-codes: L33 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino and nep-sog
Date: 2005-08
Note: CF EFG PR
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w11542.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html.

Related works:
Working Paper: Academic Freedom, Private-Sector Focus, and the Process of Innovation (2005)
Journal Article: Academic freedom, private-sector focus, and the process of innovation (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11542

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w11542
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc
Address: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by ().