Albert N. Link

Albert N. Link is Professor of economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). He received, with honors, the B.S. degree in mathematics from the University of Richmond in 1971 and the Ph.D. degree in economics from Tulane University in 1976. After receiving the Ph.D., he joined the economics faculty at Auburn University where he remained until 1982 when he joined the economics faculty at UNCG.
Professor Link’s research focuses on technology and innovation policy, the economics of R&D, and policy/program evaluation. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Technology Transfer. Among his more than 40 books, some of the more recent ones are: Public Goods, Public Gains (Oxford University Press, 2011), Government as Entrepreneur (Oxford University Press, 2009), and Cyber Security: Economic Strategies and Public Policy Alternatives (Edward Elgar, 2008). His other research consists of more than 125 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Some of his scholarship has appeared in such journals as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Review of Economics and Statistics, Economica, and Research Policy.
Professor Link is an accomplished statistician/econometrician with significant experience in survey design and implementation. His expertise in statistics and survey design/implementation is evident through his published research as well as through his public and private service. Among his accomplishments in this area, he designed, implemented, and analyzed statistically: the Semiconductor Research Corporation’s (SRC’s) membership survey and subsequent evaluation of its management efficiency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) survey of the Advanced Technology Program’s internal support of NIST’s research laboratories, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program’s survey of award recipients and subsequent analysis of the economic returns to the program, and the National Science Foundation sponsored survey and analysis of U.S. university science and technology parks. Professor Link was also a member of the National Research Council’s research team that formulated a survey instrument and subsequently analyzed the survey findings for its evaluation of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
Professor Link testified before Congress in April 2011 on the economic benefits associated with the SBIR program. Research related to that testimony is in his most recent book, Employment Growth from Public Support of Innovation in Small Firms (Upjohn Institute, 2012).
Among other accomplishments, Professor Link was tapped by the State Department in 2007 to serve as the U.S. Representative to the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in Geneva (2007-2012).
There are 11 included publications by Albert N. Link :