Working Paper: NBER ID: w31374
Authors: Caroline Fry; Ina Ganguli
Abstract: We estimate spillovers from public funding for health research in the context of the NIH's Fogarty International Center's AIDS International Training and Research Program, which aims to strengthen scientific capacity in AIDS endemic countries by providing African researchers with training opportunities in the U.S. We use an event study difference-and-differences framework with information on scientists who participated in the program and the outcomes of African scientists working in the same scientific fields at their home institutions. Compared to control groups of similar scientists, our results show that scientists exposed to a returned trainee increase their publication output, particularly those with international coauthors. They also increase their grant funding and publish more HIV and WHO policy documents, showing that the Fogarty program impacted health policy related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in African countries.
Keywords: AIDS; scientific capacity; public funding; health research; spillover effects
JEL Codes: F22; J61; O1; O3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Return of trainees (M53) | Increase in publication output (O47) |
| Return of trainees (M53) | Increase in grant funding (I28) |
| Return of trainees (M53) | Increase in production of health policy documents (H51) |
| Return of trainees (M53) | Increase in connections between local and international researchers (O36) |