Uncertainty and individual discretion in allocating research funds
Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2019
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | eng |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2019
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121833 |
| _version_ | 1826188371307790336 |
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| author | Kearney, Michael J.(Michael Joseph) |
| author2 | Pierre Azoulay. |
| author_facet | Pierre Azoulay. Kearney, Michael J.(Michael Joseph) |
| author_sort | Kearney, Michael J.(Michael Joseph) |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2019 |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T07:58:37Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/121833 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T07:58:37Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1218332019-11-22T04:40:48Z Uncertainty and individual discretion in allocating research funds Kearney, Michael J.(Michael Joseph) Pierre Azoulay. Sloan School of Management. Sloan School of Management Sloan School of Management. Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2019 Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 31-34). There is a long-standing tradition in public research funding agencies of distributing funds via peer review, which aggregates evaluations of proposed research ideas from a group of external experts. Despite complaints that this process is biased against novel ideas, there is poor understanding of an alternative system that may overcome this bias: the use of individual discretion. Here, we conduct the first quantitative study of how individual discretion affects a research funding portfolio. Using internal project selection data from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), we describe how a portfolio of projects selected by individual discretion differs from a portfolio of projects selected by traditional peer review. We show that ARPA-E program directors prefer to fund proposals with greater disagreement among experts, especially if at least one reviewer thinks highly of the proposal. This preference leads ARPA-E to fund more uncertain and creative research ideas, which supports the agency's mission of pursuing novel ideas for transformational energy technology. by Michael Kearney. S.M. in Management Research S.M.inManagementResearch Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management 2019-07-18T20:34:51Z 2019-07-18T20:34:51Z 2019 2019 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121833 1108621005 eng MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 40 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Sloan School of Management. Kearney, Michael J.(Michael Joseph) Uncertainty and individual discretion in allocating research funds |
| title | Uncertainty and individual discretion in allocating research funds |
| title_full | Uncertainty and individual discretion in allocating research funds |
| title_fullStr | Uncertainty and individual discretion in allocating research funds |
| title_full_unstemmed | Uncertainty and individual discretion in allocating research funds |
| title_short | Uncertainty and individual discretion in allocating research funds |
| title_sort | uncertainty and individual discretion in allocating research funds |
| topic | Sloan School of Management. |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121833 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kearneymichaeljmichaeljoseph uncertaintyandindividualdiscretioninallocatingresearchfunds |