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What is the causal effect of R&D on patenting activity in a “professor’s privilege” country? Evidence from Sweden

Ejermo, Olof LU and Källström, John LU (2016) In Small Business Economics 47. p.677-694
Abstract

We investigate the responsiveness of academic patenting to research and development (R&D) at the subject level at Swedish universities in panel data regressions. The general responsiveness to R&D is found to be higher than corresponding estimates in US studies, especially when we adopt instrumental variable techniques that address endogeneity in the R&D-to-patent relationship studied. We also find that this responsiveness is not associated with a lower quality of patents measured in terms of citations. A higher responsiveness from R&D to patenting is found in the fields of chemical engineering, chemistry (science), electrical engineering, electronics, and photonics, information technology, medicine, and microbiology than... (More)

We investigate the responsiveness of academic patenting to research and development (R&D) at the subject level at Swedish universities in panel data regressions. The general responsiveness to R&D is found to be higher than corresponding estimates in US studies, especially when we adopt instrumental variable techniques that address endogeneity in the R&D-to-patent relationship studied. We also find that this responsiveness is not associated with a lower quality of patents measured in terms of citations. A higher responsiveness from R&D to patenting is found in the fields of chemical engineering, chemistry (science), electrical engineering, electronics, and photonics, information technology, medicine, and microbiology than in other patenting fields. Our main result, that academia in Sweden contributes well to inventive activity, supports the view that the professor’s privilege—that university researchers themselves have ownership to their inventions—may be a contributing factor.

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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Academia, Knowledge production functions, Patenting, Professor’s privilege, Research and development, Sweden
in
Small Business Economics
volume
47
pages
18 pages
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:84976421859
  • wos:000384440900007
ISSN
0921-898X
DOI
10.1007/s11187-016-9752-7
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
9a51289a-509e-4319-a4a4-b85b65e45b0d
date added to LUP
2016-07-18 12:40:45
date last changed
2024-01-04 10:05:31
@article{9a51289a-509e-4319-a4a4-b85b65e45b0d,
  abstract     = {{<p>We investigate the responsiveness of academic patenting to research and development (R&amp;D) at the subject level at Swedish universities in panel data regressions. The general responsiveness to R&amp;D is found to be higher than corresponding estimates in US studies, especially when we adopt instrumental variable techniques that address endogeneity in the R&amp;D-to-patent relationship studied. We also find that this responsiveness is not associated with a lower quality of patents measured in terms of citations. A higher responsiveness from R&amp;D to patenting is found in the fields of chemical engineering, chemistry (science), electrical engineering, electronics, and photonics, information technology, medicine, and microbiology than in other patenting fields. Our main result, that academia in Sweden contributes well to inventive activity, supports the view that the professor’s privilege—that university researchers themselves have ownership to their inventions—may be a contributing factor.</p>}},
  author       = {{Ejermo, Olof and Källström, John}},
  issn         = {{0921-898X}},
  keywords     = {{Academia; Knowledge production functions; Patenting; Professor’s privilege; Research and development; Sweden}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{677--694}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Small Business Economics}},
  title        = {{What is the causal effect of R&D on patenting activity in a “professor’s privilege” country? Evidence from Sweden}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11187-016-9752-7}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s11187-016-9752-7}},
  volume       = {{47}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}