China’s Bayh-Dole Act and University Patenting: A Contingency Perspective

Abstract

Around the world, universities are playing an increasingly important role in the technological development of industries. Many counties emulate policies like the Bayh-Dole Act in the US by giving universities full property rights of government-funded research. Bayh-Dole-like laws have been empirically examined with mixed findings, but few studies have considered the institutional conditions and investigated the causal effect of the Bayh-Dole like policy in developing and transition economies like China. Based on the 2002 Bayh-Dole-like reform in China, we conduct the difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis at the university-IPC level and find that China’s 2002 Bayh-Dole Act increased university-owned patents significantly. In addition, universities with higher prestige (supported by Project 211) and located in areas with better market conditions benefit the most from the Act. These findings provide new insights and highlight the importance of considering complementary institutional mechanisms in fulfilling the intended effect of Bayh-Dole like laws. Our research has significant implications for policymakers, especially in developing and transition economies.