Due to their origin from universities, academic spin‐offs operate at the forefront of the
technological development. Therefore, spin‐offs exhibit a skill‐biased labour demand, i.e. spin‐offs
have a high demand for employees with cutting edge knowledge and technical skills. In order to accommodate
this demand, spin‐offs may have to pay a relative wage premium compared to other
high‐tech start‐ups. However, neither a comprehensive theoretical assessment nor the empirical
literature on wages in start‐ups unambiguously predicts the existence and the direction of wage differentials
between spin‐offs and non‐spin‐offs. This paper addresses this research gap and examines
empirically whether or not spin‐offs pay their employees a wage premium. Using a unique linked
employer‐employee data set of German high‐tech start‐ups, we estimate Mincer‐type wage regressions
applying the Hausman‐Taylor panel estimator. Our results show that spin‐offs do not pay a
wage premium in general. However, a notable exception from this general result is that spin‐offs that
commercialise new scientific results or methods provide higher wages to employees with linkages to
the university sector – either as university graduates or as student workers.
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