| By: |
Olga Gorelova (National Research University Higher School of Economics);
Andrey Lovakov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: |
The literature on the consequences of academic inbreeding shows ambiguous
results: some papers show that inbreeding positively influences research
productivity, measured in the quantity and quality of publications, while
others show the opposite effect. There are contradictory results both in
studies of different countries and within countries. Such a variety of results
makes it impossible to transfer the findings from one academic system to
another, and in Russia this problem has been under explored. This paper
focuses on the relationship between inbreeding and publication activity among
Russian faculty members. The results, using Russian data from the Changing
Academic Profession survey, showed no substantial effect of academic
inbreeding on research productivity. Inbred and non-inbred faculty members do
not differ substantially in terms of the probability of having publications,
or how many, although for inbreds such probability is slightly higher. These
results are robust for different operationalizations of inbreeding and
measures of publication activity. However the absence of significant
differences in the number of publications may not mean the absence of a
difference in their quality. The possible explanations and limitations of the
standard measures of research productivity are discussed. |
| Keywords: |
Academic profession, Academic inbreeding, Research productivity, Faculty members, Russian higher education, Changing Academic Profession |
| JEL: |
I23 I28 |
| Date: |
2016 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:32edu2015&r=sog |