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The Impact of Academic Patenting on the Rate, Quality, and Direction of (Public) Research Output

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Author Info
Pierre Azoulay
Waverly Ding
Toby Stuart
Abstract

We examine the influence of faculty patenting activity on the rate, quality, and content of public research outputs in a panel dataset spanning the careers of 3,862 academic life scientists. Using inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW) to account for the dynamics of self-selection into patenting, we find that patenting has a positive effect on the rate of publication of journal articles, but no effect on the quality of these publications. Using several measures of the "patentability" of the content of research papers, we also find that patenters may be shifting their research focus to questions of commercial interest. We conclude that the often-voiced concern that patenting in academe has a nefarious effect on public research output is, at least in its simplest form, misplaced.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 11917.

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Date of creation: Jan 2006
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11917

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
O31 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
O32 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
O34 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Intellectual Property Rights

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Albert Banal-Estañol & Mireia Jofre-Bonet & Cornelia Meissner, 2008. "The Impact of Industry Collaboration on Academic Research Output: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis," City University Economics Discussion Papers 08/14, Department of Economics, City University, London. [Downloadable!]
  2. Albert Link & Christopher Ruhm, 2009. "Public Knowledge, Private Knowledge: The Intellectual Capital of Entrepreneurs," NBER Working Papers 14797, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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