Academic Entrepreneurship: The Bayh-Dole Act versus the Professor’s Privilege

Is the Bayh-Dole intellectual property regime associated with more and better academic entrepreneurship than the Professor’s Privilege regime? The authors examine data on US PhDs in the natural sciences, engineering, and medical fields who became entrepreneurs in 1993–2006 and compare this to similar data from Sweden. They find that, in both countries, those with an academic background have lower rates of entry into entrepreneurship than do...