Science Research and Knowledge Creation in Indian Universities: Theoretical Perspectives and Econometric Evidence

In this paper, we present an economic analysis of science research and knowledge creation in Indian universities. We posit that faculty’s research effort is an outcome of her optimum time allocation decision, which in turn shapes knowledge creation in universities. Accordingly, the present paper has a two-fold objective: (1) to develop a theoretical model of research effort by academic scientists in India, and (2) to estimate the research production function that transforms research effort into knowledge outputs controlling for various other factors, using tools of applied econometrics. We establish, theoretically as well as empirically, that contrary to the fairly well accepted proposition of declining research effort/productivity over a scientist’s life cycle in the western world, Indian academic scientists, ceteris paribus, tend to devote a larger share of their time to research and produce larger volumes of research output over their lifetime.