The paper “Academic Freedom and Innovation” has been published in PLOS ONE. It is co-authored by David B. Audretsch, Christian Fisch (EINT, SnT), Chiara Franzoni, Paul P. Momtaz, and Silvio Vismara.
Abstract:
Academic freedom is a foundational norm of science. Although its importance is widely acknowledged, empirical research on academic freedom remains scarce—particularly concerning its relationship with societal outcomes such as innovation. This study addresses that gap by examining the impact of academic freedom on both the quantity (measured by patent applications) and quality (measured by patent citations) of innovation. Using a comprehensive dataset covering 157 countries from 1900 to 2015, the authors find that a one standard deviation increase in academic freedom is associated with a 41% rise in patent applications and a 29% increase in forward citations. These results are robust across various model specifications. The findings carry an urgent message for policymakers: global academic freedom has declined over the past decade—marking the first such trend in over a century—and this erosion poses a significant threat to national innovation performance in both scale and impact.