Papers or Patents: Channels of University Effect on Regional Innovation

This paper analyzes empirically the channels through which university re-search affects industry innovation. We examine how the opening of new science, medicine and engineering departments in Italy during 1985-2000 affected regional innovation systems. We find that creation of a new university department increased regional innovation activity 3-4 years later. On average, an opening of a new department has led to a twenty percent change in the number of patents filed by regional firms. Given that this effect occurs within the first half decade of the appearance of a new department, it cannot be ascribed to improvements in the quality and quantity of graduates. At the same time, traditional measures of academic research activity { publications and patents { can explain at most 50 percent of this effect, of which the lion's share is due to publications.

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