1 THE IMPACT OF THE PERFORMANCE-BASED RESEARCH FUND ON THE RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY OF NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITIES

The introduction of the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) has resulted in much greater scrutiny of the research activities of New Zealand universities. This study examines the impact of this greater scrutiny on the research productivity of the universities. The analysis shows that most universities exhibit a significant increase in productivity in the period following the introduction of the PBRF. This finding is corroborated through the use of a production function approach to model the research process in New Zealand universities. This showed that the number of research publications listed in the Web of Science by university researchers is significantly higher following the introduction of the PBRF. Analysis of total research output data shows that this increase in Web of Science research publications has not been at the expense of other forms of research output