Abstract
We compare the scientific productivity of PhD students who are hired from a fine-grained set of mutually exclusive affiliation types: a PhD supervisor's affiliation, an external affiliation from which the supervisor derives her coauthors, and an external affiliation with which the supervisor has no coauthorship ties. Using a novel dataset of science and engineering PhD students who graduated from two major Swiss universities, we find that the most productive PhD category is the one made of students who are affiliated with universities other than their supervisors' affiliation, but from which the PhD supervisors derive their coauthors. This result suggests an inverted U-shaped relationship between PhD students' productivity and the social distance from their supervisors. Additionally, we find evidence consistent with the role of supervisors' coauthor networks in resolving information asymmetries regarding PhD talent.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 785-796 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Research Policy |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 2 Feb 2016 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 May 2016 |
Funding
We are indebted to Jacques Mairesse and Paula Stephan for their invaluable advice. We also thank Barbara Boldt, Dominique Foray, Nathan E. Gates, Pierpaolo Parrotta, Michele Pezzoni, Filippo Wezel, seminar participants at University of Lugano, Polytechnic University of Milan, University of Lausanne, Roma Tre University, participants in the 2013 BRICK Workshop and the 2012 REER Conference. Authors acknowledge support from the Swiss Science Foundation (Project funding Div. I-III no. 149931).
Keywords
- PhD students
- Scientific productivity
- Supervisors' networks
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Strategy and Management
- Management Science and Operations Research
- Management of Technology and Innovation