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

Kevin Boudreau, T Brady, Ina Ganguli, Patrick Gaule, Eva Guinan, Anthony Hollenberg, Karim Lakhani

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Citations (SciVal)
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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 friction, even in the case of geographically proximate scientists working in the same institutional context.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)565-576
Number of pages12
JournalReview of Economics and Statistics
Volume99
Issue number4
Early online date2 Oct 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Oct 2017

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