Working Paper: NBER ID: w15732
Authors: Richard Jensen; Jerry Thursby; Marie C. Thursby
Abstract: This paper presents a theoretical model of faculty consulting in the context of government and industry funding for research within the university, which then frames an empirical analysis of the funding and consulting of 458 individual faculty inventors from 8 major US universities. In the theory, firms realize that they free ride on government sponsored research of the faculty they hire as consultants and faculty realize their university research projects indirectly benefit from their firm experience. The model accounts for faculty quality, project characteristics, faculty share of license revenue from university research, and the university's research support. Empirically we find that government research funding is positively related to consulting, independent of faculty quality. We find that government and industry funding for university research are strategic complements as well as evidence of the ability of universities to leverage their research infrastructure to attract research funding.
Keywords: University-Industry Collaboration; Government Funding; Industrial Consulting; Spillovers
JEL Codes: O31; O34; O38
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| government research funding (I23) | faculty consulting (A29) |
| government funding (H59) | faculty consulting on firm research projects (M51) |
| government funding (H59) | industry funding (L39) |
| increase in license revenue share (D45) | decrease in consulting time (J29) |
| faculty consulting (A29) | knowledge spillover from universities to industry (O36) |