Wages in high-tech start-ups – Do academic spin-offs pay a wage premium?

Matthias Dorner, Helmut Fryges and Kathrin Schopen
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Kathrin Müller

Research Policy, 2017, vol. 46, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: Due to their origin in universities, academic spin-offs operate at the forefront of technological development. Therefore, academic spin-offs exhibit a skill-biased labour demand, i.e. academic spin-offs have a high demand for employees with cutting-edge knowledge and technical skills. In order to accommodate this demand, academic spin-offs may have to pay a relative wage premium compared to other high-tech start-ups. However, neither a comprehensive theoretical assessment nor the empirical literature on wages in start-ups unambiguously predicts the existence and the direction of wage differentials between academic spin-offs and non-spin-offs. This paper addresses this research gap and examines empirically whether or not academic spin-offs pay their employees a wage premium. Using a unique linked employer-employee data set of German high-tech start-ups, we estimate Mincer-type wage regressions applying the Hausman-Taylor panel estimator. Our results show that academic spin-offs do not pay a wage premium in general. However, a notable exception to this general result is that academic spin-offs that commercialise new scientific results or methods pay a wage premium to employees with links to the university sector − either as university graduates or as student workers.

Keywords: Wages; High-tech start-ups; Academic spin-offs; Linked employer-employee data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 L26 M13 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: Wages in high-tech start-ups - do academic spin-offs pay a wage premium? (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:46:y:2017:i:1:p:1-18

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2016.09.002

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