• Abstract:

While there is substantial agreement in policy circles that there would be significant economic benefit from universities being more engaged in technology transfer, there is disagreement on how best to accomplish this. In particular, there is a policy debate about whether a professor-privilege or university-ownership model is best for facilitating commercialization of university research. Taking advantage of a natural experiment created by a policy change in Japan that transferred Japan from a professor-privilege to university-ownership regime, we use a set of matched scientist surveys from the US and Japan to estimate a series of difference-in-difference models to test the impact of the policy shift on patenting and licensing of university research projects. We find that before the shift, Japanese academic projects were more likely to be patented, and were somewhat more likely to be licensed. After the policy shift, we find a further increase in patenting (and no decrease in licensing), compared to the control group of US research projects and compared to Japan before the shift. These results suggest that the university-ownership model (sometimes called the Bayh-Dole model) may be more effective than the professor privilege (free agent) model. Further work is needed to develop the underlying incentive and information asymmetry models that would drive these results. However, the policy implications are that countries may benefit from shifting from a professor privilege regime to a university ownership model, as many countries have recently done.

• Speakers’ Profile:

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Sociology, Northwestern University, M.A., Sociology, Northwestern University, B.A., Sociology, summa cum laude, University of Cincinnati

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

Technological innovation, organization theory, science and technology policy, university-industry relations, Japanese economy, economic sociology, research methods

POSITIONS

2008-present Professor, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology

2006-2008 Associate Professor, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology

2011 Visiting Professor, Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University

2002-05 Visiting Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo

1996-2006 Associate Professor, Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago

2000-01 Visiting Associate Professor, Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University

1993-94 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University

1989-90 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University

1988-96 Assistant Professor, Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago

1987-88 Research Fellow, Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, Northwestern University