The productivity of French technology transfer offices after government reforms

Abstract

This article assesses the productivity change of the French technology transfer offices (TTOs) after the introduction of the July 1999 innovation law and the new public management oriented reform. By using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-based Malmquist productivity index, we find an average increase in the short-term productivity of the French TTOs driven by both positive efficiency and technology change. The bootstrap analysis reveals that these improvements are ascribed to 50% of the TTO systems, while the remaining part does not show significant changes. Moreover, while older TTOs positively contribute to the performance of French TTOs in the short run, young TTOs with hospital seem to contribute negatively to the efficiency of the entire system.