Synergies of Tradeoffs in University Life Science Research

The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, key court decisions, and several breakthrough process technologies, paved the way for a period of remarkable growth in the patenting of life science research by U.S. universities in the 1980s and 1990s. Using a multiple-output cost framework and panel data on 96 universities over two decades this article examines whether economies of scope and/or scale are present in university production of three major life science research outputs: journal articles, patents, and doctorates. The results show strong evidence of significant economies of scope between articles and patents and economies of scale in article and patent production, suggesting that larger universities have distinct cost advantages in the production of high quality research outputs.