Commercial Incentives in Academia

This paper investigates the effects of monetary rewards from commercialisation on the pattern of research. We build a simple repeated model of a researcher capable to obtain innovative ideas. We analyse how academic and market incentives affect the allocation of the researcher’s time between research and development. We argue, however, that technology transfer objectives also affect the choice of research projects. Although commercialisation incentives reduce the time spent in research, they might also induce researchers to conduct research that is more basic in nature, contrary to what the “skewing problem” would presage. Monetary rewards induce a more intensive search for (ex-post) path-breaking innovations, which are more likely to be generated through (ex-ante) basic research programs. These results are shown to hold even if development delays publication

Financial incentives in academia: research versus development

This paper investigates the effects of monetary rewards on the pattern of research. We build a simple repeated model of a researcher capable to obtain innovative ideas. We analyse how the legal environment affects the allocation of researcher's time between research and development. Although technology transfer objectives reduce the time spent in research, they might also induce researchers to conduct research that is more basic in nature, contrary to what the "skewing problem" would presage. We also show that our results hold even if development delays publication.Financial support from Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (SEJ2006-00538), Consolider-Ingenio 2010 (CSD 2006-00016), Generalitat (Barcelona Economics - xarxa CREA and 2005SGR00836) is gratefully acknowledged

The Balanced Threat Agreement for Individual Externality Negotiation Problems

This paper introduces a model to analyze individual externalities and the associated negotiation problem, which has been largely neglected in the game theoretic literature. Following an axiomatic perspective, we propose a solution, as a payoff sharing scheme, called the balanced threat agreement, for such problems. It highlights an agent’s potential influences on all agents by threatening to enter or quit. We further study the solution by investigating its consistency. We also offer a discussion on the related stability issue

Similar-to-me effects in the grant application process: Applicants, panellists, and the likelihood of obtaining funds

We analyse if and how the characteristics of grant research panels affect the applicants' likelihood of obtaining funding and, especially, if particular types of panels favour particular types of applicants. We use the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) award decisions to test the similar-to-me hypothesis for the first time in the grant context. Our main results indicate that panel members tend to favour more (or penalise less) applicants with similar characteristics to them, as the similar-to-me hypothesis suggests. We show, for instance, that the quality of the applicants is more critical for panels of high quality than for panels of relatively lower quality, that basic-oriented panels tend to penalise applied-oriented applicants, and that panels with fewer female members tend to penalise teams with more female applicants. As a whole, we show that similar-to-me effects are simultaneously at work for a wide variety of functional, job-related research characteristics as well as for more well-known demographic attributes

L'impacte científic de la col·laboració universitat-empresa

Un estudi del Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica de la UAB ha analitzat l'èxit dels projectes científics en què col·laboren universitat i empresa en base a l'impacte en les revistes científiques. Aquest treball conclou que cal tenir en compte, quan s'avaluen els projectes, la qualitat de les publicacions dels col·laboradors en l'empresa, que, si és alta, repercutirà positivament en l'impacte del projecte científic de col·laboració amb la universitat.Un estudio del Departamento de Economía y Historia Económica de la UAB ha analizado el éxito de los proyectos científicos en los que colaboran universidad y empresa en base al impacto en las revistas científicas. Este trabajo concluye que hay que tener en cuenta, cuando se evalúan los proyectos, la calidad de las publicaciones de los colaboradores en la empresa, que, si es alta, repercutirá positivamente en el impacto del proyecto científico de colaboración con la universidad

La Situació de la innovació a Catalunya: fets i reptes

En aquest estudi s'analitza la importància de la innovació a Catalunya des d'un punt de vista de les polítiques públiques, així com des de la perspectiva de les empreses i dels centres públics de recerca. S'analitza el sector mitjançant la clàssica anàlisi DAFO (Debilitats, Amenaces, Fortaleses i Oportunitats). Catalunya es troba, doncs, en una etapa de plena consolidació i aplicació del sistema R+D, en què es necessitarà una implicació i un suport màxims de tots els agents implicats (Administració, empreses i centres de recerca).This study analyses the importance of innovation in Catalonia in terms of public policies and the business standpoint. The sector is studied by using the classic SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). So Catalonia is currently consolidating and applying the Research and Development system, where the utmost commitment and support of the agents involved is required

La Situació de la innovació a Catalunya: fets i reptes

En aquest estudi s'analitza la importància de la innovació a Catalunya des d'un punt de vista de les polítiques públiques, així com des de la perspectiva de les empreses i dels centres públics de recerca. S'analitza el sector mitjançant la clàssica anàlisi DAFO (Debilitats, Amenaces, Fortaleses i Oportunitats). Catalunya es troba, doncs, en una etapa de plena consolidació i aplicació del sistema R+D, en què es necessitarà una implicació i un suport màxims de tots els agents implicats (Administració, empreses i centres de recerca).This study analyses the importance of innovation in Catalonia in terms of public policies and the business standpoint. The sector is studied by using the classic SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). So Catalonia is currently consolidating and applying the Research and Development system, where the utmost commitment and support of the agents involved is required

Early individual stakeholders, first venture capital investment, and exit in the UK startup ecosystem

We create a novel, comprehensive dataset of UK-based startups with extensive information on ownership, control, and valuation. Our database provides unique descriptive evidence about the relevance of individual stakeholders in startups, particularly before the entry of venture capital institutional investors. We compare the influence of two comparable characteristics of various groups of pre-institutional individual stakeholders: size and experience. We show that the quantity as well as the experience, of founders, directors, and other individual investors correlate with the startup's type of, and value at, exit. Success results are very different across types of diversity: functional diversity appears to have a positive relationship with success whereas that of demographic diversity is negative

On the joint production of research and training

Universities and research institutions have the responsibility to produce science and to provide training to new generations of researchers. In this paper, we propose a model to analyze the determinants of a senior scientist’s decisions about allocating time between these tasks. The results of this decision depend upon the characteristics of the research project, the senior scientist’s concern for training and the expected innate ability of the junior scientist involved. We analyze the role that a regulator can play in defining both the value of scientific projects and the future population of independent scientists.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

La situació de la innovació a Catalunya

El CIDEM, juntament amb la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona i el Col·legi d'Economistes de Catalunya, han impulsat un ambiciós projecte per reflectir la realitat innovadora de Catalunya des de diferents perspectives. L'estudi situa Catalunya en el context europeu; analitza detalladament cadascun dels factors (tant públics com privats) que intervenen en el Sistema Català d'Innovació; i, avalua els principals reptes i obstacles que cal afrontar. Finalment, avalua també les polítiques realitzades fins avui, i en proposa de futures. En definitiva, neix amb la vocació de ser un referent de la situació de la innovació al nostre país, i amb voluntat de continuïtat mitjançant una edició biennal de l'anàlisi