Cutting the Innovation Engine: How Federal Funding Shocks Affect University Patenting, Entrepreneurship, and Publications
Quarterly Journal of Economics · 2023 · Tania Babina、Alex Xi He、Sabrina T Howell、Elisabeth Ruth Perlman、Joseph Staudt
中文摘要
本文研究联邦资助如何影响大学研究人员的创新产出。我们将22所大学的个人层面研究拨款数据与美国人口普查局的专利、论文发表及职业结果数据相匹配。我们重点考察研究人员原有狭窄研究领域内大规模、特异性且暂时性的联邦资助削减所产生的影响。采用事件研究设计，我们发现，这些负向联邦资助冲击减少了高科技创业和论文发表，但增加了专利申请。减少的论文往往质量更高且更具基础研究性质，而增加的专利则往往质量更低、通用性更弱，且更常被转让给私人主体。这些联邦资助削减导致私人资助增加，部分弥补了联邦资助的下降。结合产学合同的相关证据，结果表明，联邦资助削减使大学研究经费从联邦来源转向私人来源，并导致创新产出的公开可及性降低，且更常被企业资助方占有。
Abstract
Abstract This article studies how federal funding affects the innovation outputs of university researchers. We link person-level research grants from 22 universities to patents, publications, and career outcomes from the U.S. Census Bureau. We focus on the effects of large, idiosyncratic, and temporary cuts to federal funding in a researcher’s preexisting narrow field of study. Using an event study design, we document that these negative federal funding shocks reduce high-tech entrepreneurship and publications but increase patenting. The lost publications tend to be higher quality and more basic, whereas the additional patents tend to be lower quality, less general, and more often privately assigned. These federal funding cuts lead to an increase in private funding, which partially compensates for the decline in federal funding. Together with evidence from industry-university contracts, the results suggest that federal funding cuts shift university research funding from federal to private sources and lead to innovation outputs that are less openly accessible and more often appropriated by corporate funders.