TY  - JOUR
AU  - Jensen,Richard
AU  - Thursby,Jerry
AU  - Thursby,Marie C.
TI  - University-Industry Spillovers, Government Funding, and Industrial Consulting
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15732
PY  - 2010
Y2  - February 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15732
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15732.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Richard Jensen
Dept. of Economics 
University of Notre Dame
434 Flanner Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
E-Mail: richard.jensen.24@nd.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  - This paper presents a theoretical model of faculty consulting in the context of government and industry funding for research within the university, which then frames an empirical analysis of the funding and consulting of 458 individual faculty inventors from 8 major US universities. In the theory, firms realize that they free ride on government sponsored research of the faculty they hire as consultants and faculty realize their university research projects indirectly benefit from their firm experience. The model accounts for faculty quality, project characteristics, faculty share of license revenue from university research, and the university's research support. Empirically we find that government research funding is positively related to consulting, independent of faculty quality. We find that government and industry funding for university research are strategic complements as well as evidence of the ability of universities to leverage their research infrastructure to attract research funding.
ER  -