The impact of university licensing behaviour on scientist disclosure ∗

In this paper we analyze how a Technology Transfer Office (TTO) developing a reputation in the sale of university research may affect a scientist’s willingness to disclose ideas to the university. The TTO receives projects from academic scientists each period and then must decide whether to check the quality of each project. Checking the quality of projects and only licensing high valued projects may be beneficial because it increases the expected value of licensed projects, allowing the TTO to attract a greater payment per project due to its improved reputation. Developing a reputation, however, means that some projects are not licensed. From the scientist’s perspective, this means that any given project they disclose has a lower probability of being licensed and so scientists may decrease the number of projects that they disclose to the TTO. JEL Classification: D82; L14; L24