Abstract
We evaluate the three bio-cluster projects in Japan initiated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry since 2001 in terms of university-industry collaboration (UIC), using 3,020 biotechnology patents of 344 firms. We identify UIC patents by investigating the affiliations of 4,263 inventors in detail. The estimation results can be summarized as follows. First, the value of collaborative patents applied by cluster participants is higher than other types of collaborative patents. Second, the value of patents applied by cluster participants gets higher since the cluster projects started in 2001. Third, in particular, the patents applied by UIC within bioclusters become more valuable. These results imply that firms participating in the bio-cluster projects improve their quality-adjusted R & D productivity through UIC within clusters.
