TY - JOUR AU - Haeussler,Carolin AU - Jiang,Lin AU - Thursby,Jerry AU - Thursby,Marie C. TI - Specific and General Information Sharing Among Academic Scientists JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 15315 PY - 2009 Y2 - September 2009 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15315 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15315.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Carolin Haeussler Institut für Innovationsforschung Technologiemana und Entrepreneurship Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) Kaulbachstr. 45 80539 München E-Mail: Carolin.Haeussler@Uni-Passau.De Lin Jiang Georgia Institute of Technology College of Management 800 West Peachtree Street NW Atlanta, Georgia 30308-0520 E-Mail: lin.jiang@mgt.gatech.edu Jerry Thursby Georgia Institute of Technology E-Mail: jerry.thursby@mgt.gatech.edu Marie C. Thursby College of Management Georgia Institute of Technology 800 West Peachtree Street, NW Atlanta, GA 30308-1149 Tel: 404/894-6249 Fax: 404/385-4894 E-Mail: marie.thursby@mgt.gatech.edu AB - We provide theoretical and empirical evidence on the factors that influence the willingness of academic scientists to share research results. We distinguish between two types of sharing, specific sharing in which a researcher shares her data or materials with another and general sharing in which scientists report results to the entire community (as in conference presentations). We present two simple games in which scientists research a problem of scientific merit (with an associated prize of academic and/or commercial value). In both cases, the scientists have intermediate research results but none has solved the entire problem.We test these models using a unique survey of bio-scientists in the UK and Germany regarding their willingness to "share." Our results generally support both models. In both, sharing is negatively related to competition and the importance of patents. In other respects they differ markedly. For example, large teams are more likely to share specifically but less likely to share generally. Rank does not matter for general sharing, but it does for specific sharing, where untenured faculty are less likely to share. One important implication is that policies designed to enhance sharing must be tailored to the type of sharing. ER -