TY  - JOUR
AU  - Jaffe,Adam B.
AU  - Lerner,Josh
TI  - Privatizing R&D:  Patent Policy and the Commercialization of National Laboratory Technologies
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7064
PY  - 1999
Y2  - April 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7064
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7064.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Adam B. Jaffe
MS 021
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02454
Tel: 781/736-3451
Fax: 781/736-3457
E-Mail: ajaffe@brandeis.edu

Josh Lerner
Harvard Business School
Rock Center 214
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-6065
Fax: 617/496-7357
E-Mail: jlerner@hbs.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1999-07-01
AB  - Despite their magnitude and potential economic impact, federal R&D expenditures outside of research universities have been little scrutinized by economists.  This paper examines whether the series of initiatives since 1980 that have sought to encourage the patenting and technology transfer at the national laboratories have had a significant impact, and how the features of these facilities affected their success in commercialization. Employing both case studies of and databases about the U.S. Department of Energy's laboratories, we challenge much of the conventional wisdom. The policy changes of the 1980s had a substantial impact on the patenting activity by the national laboratories, which have gradually reached parity in patents per R&D dollar with research universities.  Using citation data, we show that, unlike universities, the quality of the laboratory patents has remained constant or even increased as their numbers have grown.  The cross-sectional patterns are generally consistent with theoretical suggestions regarding the impact and determinants of the decision to privatize government functions.
ER  -