The Effects of Scholarly Productivity and Institutional Characteristics on the Distribution of Federal Research Grants

We estimate the effects of faculty scholarly productivity and institutional characteristics on the distribution of federally funded research grants. Although faculty with more publications and citations have a greater likelihood of securing competitive research grants than their less prolific peers, the benefit of having published papers in terms of improving one's ability to secure grants tapers as the number of papers published increases. Institutional characteristics (such as AAU membership and public/private status) act to modulate the impact of individual productivity such that otherwise equally productive faculties at private universities and AAU member institutions secure more grants (and more grant dollars) than public and non-AAU member institutions. Overall, institutional characteristics play a more significant role in determining the dollar amount of grants than the number of grants.