State Science Policies: Modeling Their Origins, Nature, Fit, and Effects on Local Universities

国家科学政策：对其起源、性质、适合度以及对当地大学的影响进行建模

• 批准号: 0947814
• 负责人: Maryann Feldman
• 金额: $ 18.3万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-10-01 至 2011-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0947814&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: State; Science; Policies; Modeling; Their

Each of the fifty U.S. states has adopted science and innovation policy initiatives aimed at improving economic performance. These policies seek to leverage the research capacities of universities in the state, under the logic that those institutions are essential actors in both increasing the state's prominence as a center for technological and scientific progress and building the state's commercialization infrastructure to facilitate entrepreneurship and firm growth. States have become increasingly active in science policy since the 1980s. Unfortunately, there have been few attempts systematically to study the origins of these policies and the nature of the incentives and mechanisms they provide. Archival records of state programs exist but remain difficult to categorize. Relatedly, little attention has been paid to how individual states' policies relate to the states' socioeconomic, institutional, and academic contexts. Finally, although these policies attempt to leverage universities and move research in specific directions, little is known about how universities are in fact being affected. To address these knowledge gaps, this study utilizes multidisciplinary theoretical models, extensive longitudinal datasets, and a mix of econometric and case-study methods to examine four research questions regarding state science policy initiatives: (1) Origins: When and why do states adopt science and innovation policies involving universities? (2) Nature: How might state science and innovation policies be systematically described, categorized, and differentiated? (3) Fit: To what extent have state policymakers matched their science and innovation policies to their states' and universities' distinctive characteristics? 4) University effects: What impacts have state science and innovation policy initiatives had on both public and private universities in the state? This study formulates and investigates multidisciplinary theoretical models to examine how state science and innovation policies come to be formed, how those policies might be systematically described, categorized, and compared, how the policies fit with the states' distinctive socioeconomic and institutional contexts, and how the policies subsequently affect organizational structures, processes, and research capacity of universities in those states. Thus, the project is designed to build understanding of not only why states and institutions have acted the way they have but also, perhaps even more fundamentally, the range of potential state actions possible, the reasoning behind them, and their likely effects. At the same time, this study is designed to inform policy development and for the development of understanding and infrastructure for future projects. Questions about the origins, nature, fit, and university effects of state science and innovation policies are certainly not trivial. State policy initiatives hold prospects for stimulating innovation and broader economic development, but they pose trade-offs against other state priorities. State efforts to develop markets for knowledge may significantly alter university incentive systems and behaviors in ways that may threaten prospects for innovation and continued U.S. competitiveness. Until researchers begin to conduct informed across-state and across-institution analyses, state officials will continue to invest in science and innovation policies without sufficient information on the range of potential alternative choices and their implications. Ultimately, of course, states are interested in the implications of their policies on economic growth. Effectively addressing those ultimate outcomes depend upon first understanding the intermediate issues addressed in the four research questions outlined here. This study is designed to provide foundational models for subsequent, comprehensive investigation of the longer-term economic influences of states' investments in science and innovation policies.

美国50个州中的每一个州都采取了旨在改善经济表现的科学和创新政策举措。这些政策试图利用该州大学的研究能力，其逻辑是，这些机构在提高该州作为技术和科学进步中心的地位和建立该州的商业化基础设施以促进创业和企业成长方面都是必不可少的角色。自20世纪80年代以来，各国在科学政策方面变得越来越活跃。不幸的是，很少有人尝试系统地研究这些政策的起源以及它们所提供的奖励和机制的性质。国家项目的档案记录是存在的，但仍然难以分类。与此相关的是，很少有人关注个别州的政策与该州的社会经济、制度和学术背景之间的关系。最后，尽管这些政策试图利用大学并将研究推向特定的方向，但人们对大学实际上是如何受到影响的知之甚少。为了解决这些知识差距，本研究利用多学科理论模型、广泛的纵向数据集，以及计量经济学和案例研究方法的结合，研究了有关国家科学政策举措的四个研究问题：(1)起源：国家何时以及为什么采取涉及大学的科学和创新政策？(2)性质：如何系统地描述、分类和区分国家科技创新政策？(3)契合度：国家政策制定者在多大程度上将他们的科学和创新政策与州和大学的独特特点相匹配？4)大学效应：国家科学和创新政策举措对国家公立和私立大学的影响是什么？本研究制定并研究了多学科理论模型，以考察各州科学和创新政策是如何形成的，这些政策如何被系统地描述、分类和比较，这些政策如何适应各州独特的社会经济和制度背景，以及这些政策随后如何影响这些州的组织结构、过程和大学的研究能力。因此，该项目的目的不仅是建立对国家和机构为什么会这样做的理解，而且可能更根本的是，建立对国家可能采取的潜在行动的范围、背后的原因以及可能产生的影响的理解。与此同时，这项研究旨在为政策制定提供信息，并为未来项目的理解和基础设施的发展提供信息。关于国家科学和创新政策的起源、性质、适应性和大学效应的问题当然不是微不足道的。国家的政策举措具有刺激创新和更广泛的经济发展的前景，但它们与国家的其他优先事项相权衡。国家开发知识市场的努力可能会显著改变大学的激励制度和行为，从而威胁到创新的前景和美国持续的竞争力。在研究人员开始进行跨州和跨机构的知情分析之前，州政府官员将继续投资于科学和创新政策，而没有足够的信息来了解潜在替代选择的范围及其影响。当然，归根结底，各国关心的是其政策对经济增长的影响。有效地解决这些最终结果取决于首先理解在这里概述的四个研究问题中解决的中间问题。本研究旨在为后续全面调查国家在科学和创新政策上的投资对经济的长期影响提供基础模型。