How the National Science Foundation Funds Research in Economics

Would Increased National Science Foundation Research Support to Economists at Historically Black College and Universities Increase Their Research Productivity?

“…The analysis of Wachtel (2000) suggests that success in obtaining NSF research support is correlated with past success. This introduces a bias based on past success.…”

“…The fact that minority status reduces the likelihood of receiving NSF support raises troubling concerns about possible bias in the manner in which the NSF awards research support. Wachtel (2000) for example, has recently provided evidence that since 1974, NSF research support has been disproportionately awarded to economics faculty at fifteen top tier research universities. This suggests that the NSF award process is not unbiased in that the distribution of awards is skewed.…”

“…The bias against minority economists, if it exists, need not be based on their current status as members of a racial/ethnic minority group. The analysis of Wachtel (2000) suggests that success in obtaining NSF research support is correlated with past success. This introduces a bias based on past success.…”

“…If NSF funding enhances refereed publications prospect either through conferring upon the recipient a prestige that enables favorable referee reportsthe leveraging effect of Wachtel (2000)-and/or by imparting the social learning of publication norms as a result of successfully surviving the NSF peer review process (Ellison, 2000), then the receipt of NSF research funding by black economists at HBCUs could result in a significant increase in their research productivity. To explore this possibility, Table 7 reports descriptive data on NSF economics program grant submissions and awards from HBCU economists between 1980-2002, along with the average number of EconLit Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)-indexed publications through 2005 for black economists employed at all HBCUs, and from North Carolina A&T State University-the HBCU that accounted for all the NSF economics program awards during the period.…”

Show me the Money: Federal R&D Support for Academic Chemistry, 1990–2009

“…Aggregate descriptions of the sort noted above are helpful in sketching the broad outlines of federal research support, but because they combine data on funding across a broad range of scientific disciplines they cannot yield much insight about the factors influencing the patterns that they describe. Wachtel (2000) has analyzed the distribution of the National Science Foundation's funding of economics research. Given that economics funding has been concentrated among a few institutions, he argued that funding decisions are not being made objectively.…”