There is growing political pressure on universities to intensify their interaction with industry and to\ud
enlarge their own research funding options, in a context characterised by increasing constraints on public\ud
spending. However, whether the successful achievement of such a political desired outcome is consistent\ud
with a restriction of government funding is not clear and requires further investigation. As a matter of\ud
fact, there is scant empirical evidence on whether and to what extent government funding affects the\ud
external funding options available to universities, in particular those related to research and consulting\ud
activities. By using a set of probit and tobit panel data models estimated on financial data for the whole\ud
population of Italian university departments engaged in research in the Engineering and Physical Sciences,\ud
this paper provides evidence that government funding to universities complements funding from\ud
research contracts and consulting, contributing to increasing universities’ collaboration with industry\ud
and activating knowledge transfer processes
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.