IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/31352.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Resting on Their Laureates? Research Productivity Among Winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Author

Listed:
  • Jay Bhattacharya
  • Paul Bollyky
  • Jeremy D. Goldhaber-Fiebert
  • Geir H. Holom
  • Mikko Packalen
  • David M. Studdert

Abstract

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is the most prestigious and coveted award in medical research. Anecdotal evidence and related research suggest that receiving it may adversely affect research productivity. We compared the post-Nobel research output of laureates (prize years: 1950-2010) with their pre-Nobel output and with the output of a matched control group consisting of winners of the Lasker Award, another highly prestigious medical research prize. Pre-Nobel, laureates’ publications were more voluminous, highly cited, and novel than those of (future) Lasker winners. Post-Nobel, laureates’ productivity decreased sharply, eventually falling below that of Lasker winners on all three measures. These declines may reflect diversionary effects of the Prize, changed incentives, or intrinsically different career arcs for medical researchers who win the Nobel Prize.

Suggested Citation

  • Jay Bhattacharya & Paul Bollyky & Jeremy D. Goldhaber-Fiebert & Geir H. Holom & Mikko Packalen & David M. Studdert, 2023. "Resting on Their Laureates? Research Productivity Among Winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine," NBER Working Papers 31352, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31352
    Note: EH PR
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w31352.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George J. Borjas & Kirk B. Doran, 2015. "Prizes and Productivity: How Winning the Fields Medal Affects Scientific Output," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(3), pages 728-758.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sasaki, Shusaku & Kurokawa, Hirofumi & Ohtake, Fumio, 2019. "Positive and negative effects of social status on longevity: Evidence from two literary prizes in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Li, Teng & Lu, Runjing, 2022. "Social undermining as a dark side of symbolic awards: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    3. Zhu, Wanying & Jin, Ching & Ma, Yifang & Xu, Cong, 2023. "Earlier recognition of scientific excellence enhances future achievements and promotes persistence," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    4. Betancourt, Nathan & Jochem, Torsten & Otner, Sarah M.G., 2023. "Standing on the shoulders of giants: How star scientists influence their coauthors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    5. Gaétan Rassenfosse & Tetiana Murovana & Wolf-Hendrik Uhlbach, 2023. "The effects of war on Ukrainian research," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Wei Shi & Yan Zhang & Robert E. Hoskisson, 2017. "Ripple Effects of CEO Awards: Investigating the Acquisition Activities of Superstar CEOs' Competitors," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(10), pages 2080-2102, October.
    7. Francesca Truffa & Ashley Wong, 2024. "Undergraduate Gender Diversity and the Direction of Scientific Research," CESifo Working Paper Series 11294, CESifo.
    8. Franklin G. Mixon & Benno Torgler & Kamal P. Upadhyaya, 2017. "Scholarly impact and the timing of major awards in economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1837-1852, September.
    9. Jianhua Hou & Bili Zheng & Yang Zhang & Chaomei Chen, 2021. "How do Price medalists’ scholarly impact change before and after their awards?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(7), pages 5945-5981, July.
    10. Stéphane Benveniste & Renaud Coulomb & Marc Sangnier, 2022. "The (Market) Value of State Honors," AMSE Working Papers 2201, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    11. Bruno S. Frey & Anthony Gullo, 2020. "Sic transit gloria mundi: What remains of famous economists after their deaths?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(1), pages 283-298, April.
    12. Chan, Ho Fai & Frey, Bruno S. & Gallus, Jana & Torgler, Benno, 2014. "Academic honors and performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 188-204.
    13. Yinyu Jin & Sha Yuan & Zhou Shao & Wendy Hall & Jie Tang, 2021. "Turing Award elites revisited: patterns of productivity, collaboration, authorship and impact," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2329-2348, March.
    14. Jia, Ruixue & Nie, Huihua & Xiao, Wei, 2019. "Power and publications in Chinese academia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 792-805.
    15. Ho Fai Chan & Franklin G. Mixon & Benno Torgler, 2019. "Fame in the sciences: a culturomics approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(2), pages 605-615, February.
    16. Erina Ytsma, 2022. "Effort and Selection Effects of Performance Pay in Knowledge Creation," CESifo Working Paper Series 10153, CESifo.
    17. Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Kosnik, Lea-Rachel, 2022. "Aging in Style: Does How We Write Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 15739, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Joao Ricardo Faria & Peter McAdam, 2014. "Does Tenure Make Researchers Less Productive? The Case of the “Specialist”," School of Economics Discussion Papers 0514, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    19. Leive, Adam, 2018. "Dying to win? Olympic Gold medals and longevity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 193-204.
    20. Battiston, Pietro & Sacco, Pier Luigi & Stanca, Luca, 2022. "Cover effects on citations uncovered: Evidence from Nature," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31352. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.