Connections in scientific committees and applicants’ self-selection: Evidence from a natural randomized experiment
No Thumbnail Available
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
This publication is imported from Aalto University research portal.
View publication in the Research portal
View/Open full text file from the Research portal
Other link related to publication
View publication in the Research portal
View/Open full text file from the Research portal
Other link related to publication
Date
2019-06-01
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
17
81-97
81-97
Series
Labour Economics, Volume 58
Abstract
We investigate theoretically and empirically how connections in evaluation committees affect application decisions. Prospective candidates who are connected to a committee member may be more likely to apply if they anticipate a premium at the evaluation stage. However, when failure is costly and connections convey information to potential applicants regarding their chances of success, the impact of connections on application decisions is ambiguous. We document the relevance of this information channel using data from national evaluations in Italian academia. We find that prospective candidates are significantly less likely to apply when the committee includes, through the luck of the draw, a colleague, a coauthor or a Ph.D. advisor. At the same time, applicants tend to receive more favorable evaluations from their connections. Overall, the evidence suggests that connected individuals have access to better information at the application stage, which helps them to make better application decisions. Ignoring applicants’ self-selection would lead to an overestimation of the connection premium in evaluations by 29%.Description
Keywords
Connections, Self-selection, Academic labor markets
Other note
Citation
Bagues, M, Sylos-Labini, M & Zinovyeva, N 2019, ' Connections in scientific committees and applicants’ self-selection: Evidence from a natural randomized experiment ', Labour Economics, vol. 58, pp. 81-97 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2019.04.005
