This lecture investigates the determinants of efficiency and technological progress at US research universities. It relies on a unique panel data set of multiple outputs and inputs from 92 universities covering the period 1981-1998. Over that time span, US universities experienced large increases in industry funding and in academic patenting activity. In this context, the directional distance function and a nonparametric representation of the underlying production technology are combined to obtain estimates of productivity growth and technical efficiency. An econometric analysis is then presented to examine the determinants of technical efficiency and the rate of
technological progress. The results show how changes in funding sources for U.S. research universities affects research performance.

Jean Paul Chavas教授，出生于法国，现任教于美国威斯康辛大学麦迪逊校区（University of Wisconsin-Madison）农业和应用经济学系 （Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics），被誉为“全世界最杰出的农业和资源经济学家”。他的研究领域广泛而深入，涵盖风险和不确定性因素下的经济行为，技术变革的来源和性质，混沌理论和非线性动力学，不确定因素下的福利分析, 农业和食品政策，环境和福利经济学，发展经济学。在他的研究生涯中，至今已发表超过300篇学术论文，在过去20年中10次获得欧美各主要农业和应用经济学学术期刊年度最佳文章（最近一次为2012年 ）。Jean Paul Chavas 教授的成就为他赢得多项荣誉，早在1994年他就获得American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA）Fellow称号（AAEA授予的最高荣誉），同时他也是威斯康辛大学Anderson-Bascom Chair 及WARF Theodore W. Shultz Chair（均为表彰杰出成就教授的最高荣誉）。此外Jean Paul Chavas 教授也是欧美重要学会的委员会成员，包括the Board of Directors of the National Bureau of Economic Review (NBER), AAEA Fellows Committee, AAEA Economics and Statistics Committee, and the chair of AAEA Galbraith Committee.