Formulating research policy on expert advice

Christis Tombazos () and Matt Dobra

European Economic Review, 2014, vol. 72, issue C, 166-181

Abstract: National Research Assessments represent the principal policy used by countries with public university systems to improve the quality of their universities׳ research. They typically employ expert panels of local academics to assess journal quality, and use such assessments to reward publications. We propose a model of how experts assess quality and test this model using data from the recent Australian assessment. Controlling for objective quality, we show that experts׳ cognitive biases dominate their assessments. Consequently, such assessments exaggerate the quality of the experts׳ research and understate that of their colleagues. Our model can explain 95% of the variation in assessments.

Keywords: Cognitive bias; Interested experts; Voting; Linked decisions; Research policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 A14 D72 H52 I23 I28 J44 O32 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:72:y:2014:i:c:p:166-181

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2014.10.001

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