University Innovation and the Professor's Privilege
Hans K. Hvide, Benjamin F. Jones
American Economic Review · 2018 · Volume 108 · Issue 7
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.
Keywords
Higher Education, Research Institutions, Entrepreneurship, New Firms, Startups, Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives, Technological Change: Choices and Consequences, Diffusion Processes, Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
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