The determinants of faculty patenting behavior: Demographics or opportunities?

We examine the individual, contextual, and institutional determinants of faculty patenting behavior in a panel dataset of 3862 academic life scientists. Using discrete time hazard rate models and fixed effects logistic models, we find that patenting events are preceded by a flurry of publications, even holding constant time-invariant scientific talent and the latent patentability of a scientist’s research. Whereas previous research emphasized that academic patenters are more accomplished on average than their non-patenting counterparts, our findings suggest that patenting behavior is also a function of scientific opportunities. This result has important implications for the public policy debate surrounding academic patenting.