Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP11139
Authors: Hans K. Hvide; Benjamin Jones
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 U.S. model, where the university holds majority rights. Using comprehensive data on Norwegian workers, firms, and patents, we find a 50% 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 literatures on university technology transfer, innovation incentives, and taxes and entrepreneurship are considered.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: No JEL codes provided
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| policy reform (E69) | decline in entrepreneurship rates (L26) |
| policy reform (E69) | decline in patenting rates (O38) |
| reallocation of rights (P26) | increase in tax burden on university-based innovators (O39) |
| policy reform (E69) | decline in quality of startups (L15) |
| policy reform (E69) | decline in quality of patents (L15) |