An analysis of national research systems (II): Efficiency in the production of research excellence

The main contribution of this project lies in the assessment of the efficiency of national research systems in achieving excellent research performances. The efficiency assessment is not only restricted to the production of research excellence in general, but is disentangled by type of research field, distinguishing between science and technology. This distinction provides a helpful tool for policy makers in assessing the discrepancy of efficiency in both science and technology excellence within and across countries. In our conceptual framework, a national research system’s efficiency can be defined as the extent to which a country is able to transform research assets into excellent research. We conducted efficiency analyses on three main model specifications in which we relate the amount of resource assets (public, private, total R&D expenditure) to the performance on excellent research. In our empirical analysis of efficiency, we report on two methodologies: output/input ratios (partial measures of efficiency) and robust production frontiers (complete and robust measures, order-m and order-alpha method, as developed by Daraio and Simar (2007a). Various conclusions are drawn based on these analyses.JRC.G.3-Econometrics and applied statistic