THE SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTIVITY OF ACADEMIC INVENTORS: NEW EVIDENCE FROM ITALIAN DATA November, 2004 S. Breschi 1 , F. Lissoni 1,2 , F. Montobbio 1,3 1 Cespri, Università Bocconi, Milan, Italy 2 Università degli studi di Brescia (corr. author: lissoni@ing.unibs.it ), Italy 3 Università degli studi dell’Insubria, Varese Italy Abstract: We investigate the scientific productivity of Italian academic inventors, namely academic researchers designated as inventors on patent applications to the European Patent Office, 1978-1999. We use a new longitudinal data set comprising 299 academic inventors, and as many matching controls (non-patenting researchers). We enquire whether a trade-off between publishing and patenting, or a trade-off between basic and applied research exists, on the basis of the number and quality of publications. We find no trace of such a trade-off, and find instead a strong and positive relationship between patenting and publishing, even in basic science. Our results suggest however that it is not patenting per se that boosts scientific productivity, but the advantage derived from solid links with industry, as the strongest correlation between publishing and patenting activity is found when patents are owned by business partners, rather than individual scientists or their universities. This paper draws extensively on various drafts presented at the workshop on The empirical economic analysis of the academic sphere (BETA- Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, March 17 th 2004), at the 10th International J. A. Schumpeter Society Conference (Università Bocconi, Milan 9-12 June 2004), and at the AEA Conference on Innovation and Intellectual Property (Singapore 15-16 July, 2004). Financial support from the Italian Ministry of Education and Research (PRIN 2003133821_003) and Università degli studi dell’Insubria is gratefully acknowledged. Paolo Guatta and Elena Andreolli deserve high praise for the skilful and patient research assistance provided. The first nucleus of the database comes from dissertation work by Alessandro Cattalini, Paolo Floriello, and Andrea Plebani.