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Public funding and the ascent of Chinese science: Evidence from the National Natural Science Foundation of China

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  • Hu, Albert G.Z.

Abstract

We investigate the role of public funding in the rapid ascent of Chinese science by examining the impact of a major upgrade of a funding program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2011. Using research grant level data and a difference-in-differences estimator, we found that the more generous funding resulted in higher research output, measured by the number of publications, the number of citation-weighted publications, the number of journal impact factor-adjusted publications, and the maximum journal impact factor. This belies significant variation in the impact of the change in funding by researcher characteristics: 1) less-established researchers benefit more from the funding upgrade; 2) scientific fields that are more likely to be financially constrained benefited more; and 3) researchers from less-prestigious research institutions made more productive use of the additional funds. Finally, we found that the funding upgrade has led to increasing collaboration with researchers from top science-producing foreign countries for the less-prestigious institutions.

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  • Hu, Albert G.Z., 2020. "Public funding and the ascent of Chinese science: Evidence from the National Natural Science Foundation of China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(5).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:49:y:2020:i:5:s0048733320300639
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2020.103983
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    Cited by:

    1. Wensheng Xiao & Haojia Kong & Lifan Shi & Valentina Boamah & Decai Tang, 2022. "The Impact of Innovation-Driven Strategy on High-Quality Economic Development: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Peixin Duan, 2022. "How large of a grant size is appropriate? Evidence from the National Natural Science Foundation of China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(2), pages 1-14, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Science policy; Basic scientific research; Public funding; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

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