Harun Bulut

US universities??? net returns from patenting and licensing: a quantile regression analysis

Consistent with the rights and incentives provided by the Bayh–Dole Act of 1980, US universities have increased their involvement in patenting and licensing activities through their own technology transfer offices. Only a few US universities are obtaining large returns, however, whereas others are continuing with these activities despite negligible or negative returns. We assess the US universities’ potential to generate returns from licensing activities by modeling and estimating quantiles of the distribution of net licensing returns conditional on some of their structural characteristics. We find limited prospects for public universities without a medical school everywhere in their distribution. Other groups of universities (private, and public with a medical school) can expect better but still fairly modest returns. These findings call into question the appropriateness of the revenue-generating motive for the aggressive rate of patenting and licensing by US universities.

U.S. Consumers’ Valuation of Quality Attributes in Beef Products

A sample of U.S. consumers were surveyed in a choice based experiment in the Fall of 2005 and Spring 2006 to elicit consumers’ preferences for quality attributes in beef products. Based on the resulting data, a random coefficients logit model is estimated, and consumers’ willingness to pay for these quality attributes in beef products is obtained. The results indicate that consumers have strong valuation for traceability, grass-fed, and U.S. origin attributes in a standard rib-eye steak and are willing to pay a premium for these attributes.

The Value of Third-Party Certification of Preconditioning Claims at Iowa Feeder Cattle Auctions

After controlling a variety of feeder cattle characteristics and market and sale conditions, we estimate the price premiums for preconditioning (vaccinations and minimum 30 days weaning) claims with and without third-party certification (TPC) as

On the Segregation of Genetically Modified, Conventional and Organic Products in European Agriculture: A Multi-market Equilibrium Analysis

6.15/cwt and

Meat slaughter and processing plants' traceability levels: evidence from Iowa

3.40/cwt, respectively, in Iowa feeder cattle auctions. These premiums differ statistically (p-value less than 0.0001) and their difference exceeds the additional participation cost of TPC (

Patents, trade secrets and the correlation among R&D projects

1/cwt) on average. This indicates that the third party certification is valued in the market to credibly signal preconditioning investment under asymmetric information.