TY  - JOUR
AU  - Trajtenberg,Manuel
AU  - Henderson,Rebecca
AU  - Jaffe,Adam
TI  - Ivory Tower Versus Corporate Lab: An Empirical Study of Basic Research  and Appropriability
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4146
PY  - 1992
Y2  - August 1992
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4146
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4146.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Manuel Trajtenberg
Eitan Berglas School of Economics
Tel-Aviv University
Tel-Aviv 69978
ISRAEL
Tel: 972-3-640-9911
Fax: 972-3-640-9908
E-Mail: manuel@post.tau.ac.il

Rebecca Henderson
Heinz Professor of Environmental Management
Harvard Business School
Morgan 445
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-8014
Fax: 617/496-4072
E-Mail: rhenderson@hbs.edu

Adam B. Jaffe
MS 021
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02454
Tel: 781/736-3451
Fax: 781/736-3457
E-Mail: ajaffe@brandeis.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1993-03-01
AB  - We explore the use of patent citations to measure the "basicness" and appropriability of inventions. We propose that the basicness of research underlying an invention can be characterized by the nature of the previous patents cited by an invention; that the basicness of research outcomes relates to the subsequent patents that cite an invention; and that the fraction of citing patents that are assigned to the same organization as the original invention is a measure of appropriabiity. We test the validity of these presumptions by comparing the value of our measures for university and corporate patents, and find that many of the measures do conform to our a priori belief that university research and research outcomes are more basic and harder to appropriate than those of corporations. We also find some evidence that basicness of outcomes is correlated with basicness of research, and that appropriability is lower for basic outcomes.
ER  -