Olof Ejermo
Professor
University invention and the abolishment of the professor's privilege in Finland
Author
Summary, in English
In 2007 Finland changed ownership rights to inventions from its employees - "the professor's privilege" - to universities. We investigate how this change affected academic patenting using new data on inventors and patenting in Finland for the period 1995-2010. Matched sample panel data regressions using difference-in-differences show that patenting by individuals dropped by at least 29 percent after 2007. Unlike other countries studied, in Finland the reform was known before implementation. Adding the period after announcement to the reform period increases the drop in academic patenting to 46 percent. Our and others' results call into question whether the European reform of the professor's privilege were good innovation policy.
Department/s
- CIRCLE
- Department of Economic History
Publishing year
2018-05
Language
English
Pages
814-825
Publication/Series
Research Policy
Volume
47
Issue
4
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Keywords
- Academic patenting
- Finland
- Professor's privilege
- University ownership
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0048-7333