IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/15146.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Federal Life Sciences Funding and University R&D

Author

Listed:
  • Margaret E. Blume-Kohout
  • Krishna B. Kumar
  • Neeraj Sood

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of federal extramural research funding on total expenditures for life sciences research and development (R&D) at U.S. universities, to determine whether federal R&D funding spurs funding from non-federal (private and state/local government) sources. We use a fixed effects instrumental variable approach to estimate the causal effect of federal funding on non-federal funding. Our results indicate that a dollar increase in federal funding leads to a $0.33 increase in non-federal funding at U.S. universities. Our evidence also suggests that successful applications for federal funding may be interpreted by non-federal funders as a signal of recipient quality: for example, non-PhD-granting universities, lower ranked universities and those that have historically received less funding experience greater increases in non-federal funding per federal dollar received.

Suggested Citation

  • Margaret E. Blume-Kohout & Krishna B. Kumar & Neeraj Sood, 2009. "Federal Life Sciences Funding and University R&D," NBER Working Papers 15146, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15146
    Note: EH PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w15146.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arthur M. Diamond, 1999. "Does Federal Funding “Crowd In” Private Funding Of Science?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 17(4), pages 423-431, October.
    2. Payne A. Abigail & Siow Aloysius, 2003. "Does Federal Research Funding Increase University Research Output?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-24, May.
    3. Jacob, Brian A. & Lefgren, Lars, 2011. "The impact of research grant funding on scientific productivity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9), pages 1168-1177.
    4. David, Paul A. & Hall, Bronwyn H. & Toole, Andrew A., 2000. "Is public R&D a complement or substitute for private R&D? A review of the econometric evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4-5), pages 497-529, April.
    5. A. Payne, 2001. "Measuring the Effect of Federal Research Funding on Private Donations at Research Universities: Is Federal Research Funding More than a Substitute for Private Donations?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(5), pages 731-751, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Raphaël Godefroy, 2010. "The birth of the congressional clinic," Working Papers halshs-00564921, HAL.
    2. Lauren Lanahan, 2016. "Multilevel public funding for small business innovation: a review of US state SBIR match programs," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 220-249, April.
    3. Joshua L Rosenbloom & Donna K Ginther & Ted Juhl & Joseph A Heppert, 2015. "The Effects of Research & Development Funding on Scientific Productivity: Academic Chemistry, 1990-2009," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-23, September.
    4. Margaret Blume-Kohout & Krishna Kumar & Christopher Lau & Neeraj Sood, 2015. "The effect of federal research funding on formation of university-firm biopharmaceutical alliances," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(5), pages 859-876, October.
    5. Elzbieta Pohulak-Zoledowska, 2013. "Property Rights Of Scientific Knowledge In Terms Of Creating Innovation," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 4(1), pages 37-52, March.
    6. Alexander Whalley & Justin Hicks, 2014. "Spending Wisely? How Resources Affect Knowledge Production In Universities," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 35-55, January.
    7. Maryann Feldman & Lauren Lanahan, 2013. "State Science Policy Experiments," NBER Chapters, in: The Changing Frontier: Rethinking Science and Innovation Policy, pages 287-317, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Daniel Crown & Alessandra Faggian, 2019. "Naturalization and the productivity of foreign-born doctorates," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 533-556, December.
    9. Leila Tahmooresnejad & Catherine Beaudry & Andrea Schiffauerova, 2015. "The role of public funding in nanotechnology scientific production: Where Canada stands in comparison to the United States," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(1), pages 753-787, January.
    10. Beaudry, Catherine & Allaoui, Sedki, 2012. "Impact of public and private research funding on scientific production: The case of nanotechnology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1589-1606.
    11. Richard Jensen & Jerry Thursby & Marie C. Thursby, 2010. "University-Industry Spillovers, Government Funding, and Industrial Consulting," NBER Working Papers 15732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rosenbloom, Joshua L. & Ginther, Donna K., 2017. "Show me the Money: Federal R&D Support for Academic Chemistry, 1990–2009," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1454-1464.
    2. Alexander Whalley & Justin Hicks, 2014. "Spending Wisely? How Resources Affect Knowledge Production In Universities," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 35-55, January.
    3. Daniel Crown & Alessandra Faggian, 2019. "Naturalization and the productivity of foreign-born doctorates," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 533-556, December.
    4. Lauren Lanahan, 2016. "Multilevel public funding for small business innovation: a review of US state SBIR match programs," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 220-249, April.
    5. Daniele Rotolo & Michael Hopkins & Nicola Grassano, 2023. "Do funding sources complement or substitute? Examining the impact of cancer research publications," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 74(1), pages 50-66, January.
    6. Feng, Wei & Yuan, Hang & Shao, Xin, 2024. "Does China Have an “Innovation Paradox”? Evidence from Chinese Colleges and Universities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    7. Kyoungmi Lee & Sunglok Choi & Jae-Suk Yang, 2021. "Can expensive research equipment boost research and development performances?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(9), pages 7715-7742, September.
    8. Annita Nugent & Ho Fai Chan & Uwe Dulleck, 2022. "Government funding of university-industry collaboration: exploring the impact of targeted funding on university patent activity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(1), pages 29-73, January.
    9. Aboal, Diego & Tacsir, Ezequiel, 2016. "The impact of ex-ante subsidies to researchers on researcher's productivity: Evidence from a developing country," MERIT Working Papers 2016-019, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    10. Marco Cozzi, 2020. "Public Funding of Research and Grant Proposals in the Social Sciences: Empirical Evidence from Canada," Department Discussion Papers 1809, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    11. Katrin Hussinger & João N. Carvalho, 2022. "The long-term effect of research grants on the scientific output of university professors," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 463-487, April.
    12. Joshua L Rosenbloom & Donna K Ginther & Ted Juhl & Joseph A Heppert, 2015. "The Effects of Research & Development Funding on Scientific Productivity: Academic Chemistry, 1990-2009," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-23, September.
    13. Raphaël Godefroy, 2010. "The birth of the congressional clinic," PSE Working Papers halshs-00564921, HAL.
    14. Morten Henningsen & Torbjørn Hægeland & Jarle Møen, 2015. "Estimating the additionality of R&D subsidies using proposal evaluation data to control for research intentions," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 227-251, April.
    15. repec:idn:journl:v:21:y:2019:i:3g:p:1-22 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Lööf, Hans & Heshmati, Almas, 2004. "The Impact of Public Funding on Private R&D investment: New Evidence from a Firm Level Innovation Study," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 6, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, revised 01 Mar 2005.
    17. Huňady Ján & Pisár Peter & Jošić Hrvoje & Žmuk Berislav & Bach Mirjana Pejić, 2023. "Government and Business Funding of Sources of Funds for R&D at Universities: Complements or Substitutes?," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 18(2), pages 97-111, December.
    18. Piekkola, Hannu, 2005. "Public Funding of R&D and Growth: Firm-level Evidence from Finland," Discussion Papers 996, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    19. José Ángel Zúñiga-Vicente & César Alonso-Borrego & Francisco J. Forcadell & José I. Galán, 2014. "Assessing The Effect Of Public Subsidies On Firm R&D Investment: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 36-67, February.
    20. Bronzini, Raffaello & Piselli, Paolo, 2016. "The impact of R&D subsidies on firm innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 442-457.
    21. Győrffy, Balázs & Herman, Péter & Szabó, István, 2020. "Research funding: past performance is a stronger predictor of future scientific output than reviewer scores," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15146. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.