University Innovation and the Professor's Privilege

Hans Hvide and Benjamin Jones

American Economic Review, 2018, vol. 108, issue 7, 1860-98

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.

JEL-codes: I23 L26 M13 O31 O33 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20160284
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)

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Working Paper: University Innovation and the Professor's Privilege (2016)
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