| Abstract: |
We analyse if and how the characteristics of grant research panels affect the
applicants' likelihood of obtaining funding and, especially, if particular
types of panels favor particular types of applicants. We use the award
decisions of the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
(EPSRC). We show that not only applicants' but also panels' characteristics
matter. Panels of higher quality, in terms of prior research performance, for
instance, as well panels that include more female members or members of
Mongoloid origin, are tougher than others. Our main results indicate that
panel members tend to favor more (or penalise less) applicants with similar
characteristics to them, as the similarto- me hypothesis suggests. We show,
for instance, that the quality of the applicants is more critical for panels
of the highest quality than for panels of relatively lower quality, that basic
oriented panels tend to penalise applied-oriented applicants, and that panels
with less female members tend to penalise teams with more female applicants. |