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A Field Experiment on Search Costs and the Formation of Scientific Collaborations.

ABSTRACT: We present the results of a field experiment conducted at Harvard Medical School to understand the extent to which search costs affect matching among scientific collaborators. We generated exogenous variation in search costs for pairs of potential collaborators by randomly assigning individuals to 90-minute structured information-sharing sessions as part of a grant funding opportunity. We estimate that the treatment increases the probability of grant co-application of a given pair of researchers by 75%. The findings suggest that matching between scientists is subject to considerable frictions, even in the case of geographically-proximate scientists working in the same institutional context.

SUBMITTER: Boudreau KJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5786275 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A Field Experiment on Search Costs and the Formation of Scientific Collaborations.

Boudreau Kevin J KJ Brady Tom T Ganguli Ina I Gaule Patrick P Guinan Eva E Hollenberg Anthony A Lakhani Karim R KR

The review of economics and statistics 20171003 4

We present the results of a field experiment conducted at Harvard Medical School to understand the extent to which search costs affect matching among scientific collaborators. We generated exogenous variation in search costs for pairs of potential collaborators by randomly assigning individuals to 90-minute structured information-sharing sessions as part of a grant funding opportunity. We estimate that the treatment increases the probability of grant co-application of a given pair of researchers ...[more]

PMID: 29375163

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Dataset Information

A Field Experiment on Search Costs and the Formation of Scientific Collaborations.

Publications

A Field Experiment on Search Costs and the Formation of Scientific Collaborations.

Similar Datasets

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