The Impact of Project-Based Funding in Science: \r\nLessons from the ANR Experience

Nicolas Carayol and Marianne Lanoë

Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) from Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA)

Abstract: Competitive allocation of funds to research proposals is a mechanism widely used by government agencies to sustain the projects of researchers in universities and other research institutions. However, little is known about how efficient this mechanism is in practice, how it affects the recipients’ behaviors and how it would be possible to improve the precise design of such funding allocation mechanisms. This article provides new answers to those questions, relying on empirical evidence stemming from the creation of a French generalist and nationwide research funding agency in 2005. The impact of receiving a grant on the research outputs as well as on the collaborations of the grantees is precisely quantified. Moreover, the impact on citations turns out to be more than double when funds are distributed in the more competitive non-thematic programs and to be significantly larger when allocated to younger recipients.

Keywords: project-based funding; competitive grants; early-career scientists; scientific productivity; conditional difference-in-differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 D04 H5 O3 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ppm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2017-04

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