IFI EBPM in STI/STIG Policy Platform Seminar: Shedding light on unexplored aspects of team science: knowledge flows within teams and gender bias in team formation

Prof. Fabiana Visentin
Assistant Professor, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University (the Netherlands)

The seminar is based on the speaker’s two recent papers.

(1) Empirical studies document a positive effect of collaboration on team productivity. However, little has been done to assess how knowledge flows among team members. The first paper addresses this issue by exploring unique rich data on a Swiss funding program promoting research team collaboration. We find that being involved in an established collaboration and team size foster the probability of an individual learning from the other team members. We also find that team members with limited experience are more likely to learn from experienced peers. Moreover, there is an inverted U-shaped effect of cognitive distance on the probability of learning from other team members.

(2) The second paper investigate gender bias (if any) when teams are formed. We use data from the European Science Foundation to estimate if female scientists have the same opportunities as their male colleagues to join a team when applying for funds. To assess gender bias, we construct a control group of scientists with the competencies for being invited to join the team but do not join. By comparing the proportion of female scientists in the control group with the one in the observed teams, we find a gender bias against female scientists only when a project leader is a male scientist. At the same time, we do not observe gender bias when the project leader is a female scientist.

Dr. Fabiana Visentin is Assistant Professor at UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University. She is also Co-coordinator of the Governance of Innovation Specialization Master of Science and Public Policy and Human Development. She earned Ph.D. in Economics and Organization from Ca’ Foscari University (Italy) and had research experience in Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) before the current position. Her field of research includes Economics of Science as well as Economics of Knowledge and Innovation. In these topics, her contributions have appeared in top journals including the American Sociological Review, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, and Research Policy.

•Ayoubi, C., Pezzoni, M., Visentin, F., 2017. At the Origins of Learning: Absorbing Knowledge Flows from within the Team. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 134, 374-387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2016.12.020
•Pezzoni, M. and Visentin, F. 2023. Gender bias in team formation: The case of the European Science Foundation’s grants. Science and Public Policy (forthcoming). https://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/working-papers/abstract/?id=9470

Secretariat, Institute for Future Initiatives, UTokyo
Technology Governance Policy Research Unit
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