[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v47y2018i5p886-900.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the value of foreign PhDs in the developing world: Training versus selection effects in the case of South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Müller, Moritz
  • Cowan, Robin
  • Barnard, Helena
Abstract
When seeking to improve science in emerging economies, uncertainty exists whether PhD training in an emerging economy can yield comparable results to PhD training in the developed world. Scientific achievements may vary because of excellent training at good universities, but also because excellent students select (and are selected by) good universities. This paper compares the career effects of overseas and domestic PhD training for scholars working in an emerging economy, South Africa. We differentiate between and examine both selection and training effects for PhDs from three tiers of South African and two tiers of foreign universities. South African academics with PhDs from universities in industrialised countries generally achieve greater career success than those with local PhDs, but training by universities in industrialised countries is not necessarily better than local training. Our results suggest that the perceived superiority of foreign PhD training stems from selection rather than do training effects, and pure selection effects in fact explain career outcomes better than training effects. Focusing on training rather than selection, PhDs from top South African universities produce a similar quantity and quality research output to those trained by the leading universities in the developed world. From the perspective of an emerging economy with limited resources wishing to advance science, the development of local universities should thus be stressed, although it is clear that individuals who are able to study for a PhD abroad gain personally when they return.

Suggested Citation

  • Müller, Moritz & Cowan, Robin & Barnard, Helena, 2018. "On the value of foreign PhDs in the developing world: Training versus selection effects in the case of South Africa," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(5), pages 886-900.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:47:y:2018:i:5:p:886-900
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2018.02.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733318300453
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.respol.2018.02.013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James J. Heckman, 1976. "The Common Structure of Statistical Models of Truncation, Sample Selection and Limited Dependent Variables and a Simple Estimator for Such Models," NBER Chapters, in: Annals of Economic and Social Measurement, Volume 5, number 4, pages 475-492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Hansen, Karsten T. & Heckman, James J. & Mullen, K.J.Kathleen J., 2004. "The effect of schooling and ability on achievement test scores," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 39-98.
    3. Nil Demet Gungor & Aysıt Tansel, 2008. "Brain drain from Turkey: an investigation of students' return intentions," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(23), pages 3069-3087.
    4. Baruffaldi, Stefano H. & Landoni, Paolo, 2012. "Return mobility and scientific productivity of researchers working abroad: The role of home country linkages," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1655-1665.
    5. Pedro Conceição & Manuel V Heitor, 1999. "On the role of the university in the knowledge economy," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 26(1), pages 37-51, February.
    6. Rajneesh Narula & John Dunning, 2010. "Multinational Enterprises, Development and Globalization: Some Clarifications and a Research Agenda," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 263-287.
    7. Bernardes, Americo Tristao & Albuquerque, Eduardo da Motta e, 2003. "Cross-over, thresholds, and interactions between science and technology: lessons for less-developed countries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 865-885, May.
    8. Paul Benneworth & David Charles, 2005. "University spin-off policies and economic development in Less successful regions: Learning from two decades of policy practice," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 537-557, June.
    9. Athreye, Suma & Cantwell, John, 2007. "Creating competition?: Globalisation and the emergence of new technology producers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 209-226, March.
    10. Chen, Kun & Kenney, Martin, 2007. "Universities/Research Institutes and Regional Innovation Systems: The Cases of Beijing and Shenzhen," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1056-1074, June.
    11. Patrick Gaulé & Mario Piacentini, 2013. "Chinese Graduate Students and U.S. Scientific Productivity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 698-701, May.
    12. De Fuentes, Claudia & Dutrénit, Gabriela, 2012. "Best channels of academia–industry interaction for long-term benefit," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1666-1682.
    13. Saxenian, AnnaLee & Hsu, Jinn-Yuh, 2001. "The Silicon Valley-Hsinchu Connection: Technical Communities and Industrial Upgrading," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 10(4), pages 893-920, December.
    14. Rajneesh Narula & John Dunning, 2000. "Industrial Development, Globalization and Multinational Enterprises: New Realities for Developing Countries," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 141-167.
    15. Barnard, H. & Cowan, R. & Müller, M., 2012. "Global excellence at the expense of local diffusion, or a bridge between two worlds? Research in science and technology in the developing world," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 756-769.
    16. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521766555.
    17. Gibson, John & McKenzie, David, 2014. "Scientific mobility and knowledge networks in high emigration countries: Evidence from the Pacific," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9), pages 1486-1495.
    18. Nelson, Richard R. & Sampat, Bhaven N., 2001. "Making sense of institutions as a factor shaping economic performance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 31-54, January.
    19. Liefner, Ingo & Schiller, Daniel, 2008. "Academic capabilities in developing countries--A conceptual framework with empirical illustrations from Thailand," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 276-293, March.
    20. Radhamany Sooryamoorthy, 2010. "Science and scientific collaboration in South Africa: apartheid and after," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 84(2), pages 373-390, August.
    21. Sanjaya Lall, 2001. "Competitiveness, Technology and Skills," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2298.
    22. Enrico Deiaco & Alan Hughes & Maureen McKelvey, 2012. "Universities as strategic actors in the knowledge economy," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 36(3), pages 525-541.
    23. Giuliani, Elisa & Arza, Valeria, 2009. "What drives the formation of 'valuable' university-industry linkages?: Insights from the wine industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 906-921, July.
    24. Heitor, Manuel & Horta, Hugo & Mendonça, Joana, 2014. "Developing human capital and research capacity: Science policies promoting brain gain," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 6-22.
    25. Barnard, Helena & Cowan, Robin & Müller, Moritz, 2016. "On the value of foreign PhDs in the developing world: Training versus selection effects," Working Paper Series in Economics 82, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    26. Henny A. Romijn & Marjolein C. J. Caniëls, 2011. "Pathways of Technological Change in Developing Countries: Review and New Agenda," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 29(3), pages 359-380, May.
    27. Jeffrey Grogger & Gordon H. Hanson, 2015. "Attracting Talent: Location Choices of Foreign-Born PhDs in the United States," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(S1), pages 5-38.
    28. Jeffrey Grogger & Gordon Hanson, 2013. "The Scale and Selectivity of Foreign-Born PhD Recipients in the US," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 189-192, May.
    29. Rosenberg, Nathan & Nelson, Richard R., 1994. "American universities and technical advance in industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 323-348, May.
    30. Li, Feng & Miao, Yajun & Yang, Chenchen, 2015. "How do alumni faculty behave in research collaboration? An analysis of Chang Jiang Scholars in China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 438-450.
    31. Aakvik, Arild & Heckman, James J. & Vytlacil, Edward J., 2005. "Estimating treatment effects for discrete outcomes when responses to treatment vary: an application to Norwegian vocational rehabilitation programs," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 15-51.
    32. Griliches, Zvi, 1977. "Estimating the Returns to Schooling: Some Econometric Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(1), pages 1-22, January.
    33. Richard Nelson, 2004. "The challenge of building an effective innovation system for catch-up," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 365-374.
    34. Glenda Kruss & Mariette Visser, 2017. "Putting university–industry interaction into perspective: a differentiated view from inside South African universities," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 884-908, August.
    35. Zhang, Han & Patton, Donald & Kenney, Martin, 2013. "Building global-class universities: Assessing the impact of the 985 Project," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 765-775.
    36. James J. Heckman & Hedibert F. Lopes & Rémi Piatek, 2014. "Treatment Effects: A Bayesian Perspective," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1-4), pages 36-67, June.
    37. Koen Jonkers & Robert Tijssen, 2008. "Chinese researchers returning home: Impacts of international mobility on research collaboration and scientific productivity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 77(2), pages 309-333, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Liping & Shen, Wenqin & Xie, Ailei, 2021. "Why students leave Chinese elite universities for doctoral studies abroad: Institutional habitus, career script and college graduates’ decision to study abroad," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Radhamany Sooryamoorthy, 2019. "Scientific knowledge in South Africa: information trends, patterns and collaboration," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(3), pages 1365-1386, June.
    3. Allard, Gayle & Williams, Christopher, 2020. "National-level innovation in Africa," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(7).
    4. Yun Liu & Mengya Zhang & Gupeng Zhang & Xiongxiong You, 2022. "Scientific elites versus other scientists: who are better at taking advantage of the research collaboration network?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(6), pages 3145-3166, June.
    5. Guo, Jianfeng & Pan, Jiaofeng & Guo, Jianxin & Gu, Fu & Kuusisto, Jari, 2019. "Measurement framework for assessing disruptive innovations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 250-265.
    6. Maxim Kotsemir & Ekaterina Dyachenko & Alena Nefedova, 2022. "Mobile young researchers and their non-mobile ‘twins’: who is winning the academic race?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 7307-7332, December.

    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. Helena Barnard & Robin Cowan & Moritz Müller, 2016. "On the value of foreign PhDs in the developing world: Training versus selection effects," Working Papers of BETA 2016-04, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    2. Cong Cao & Jeroen Baas & Caroline S Wagner & Koen Jonkers, 2020. "Returning scientists and the emergence of China’s science system," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 47(2), pages 172-183.
    3. Uhlbach, Wolf-Hendrik & Tartari, Valentina & Kongsted, Hans Christian, 2022. "Beyond scientific excellence: International mobility and the entrepreneurial activities of academic scientists," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
    4. Watanabe, Hajime & Maruyama, Takuya, 2024. "A Bayesian sample selection model with a binary outcome for handling residential self-selection in individual car ownership," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    5. Rajeev K. Goel & Devrim Göktepe-Hultén, 2021. "Innovation by foreign researchers: relative influences of internal versus external human capital," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 258-276, February.
    6. Yi Zhang & Kaihua Chen & Guilong Zhu & Richard C. M. Yam & Jiancheng Guan, 2016. "Inter-organizational scientific collaborations and policy effects: an ego-network evolutionary perspective of the Chinese Academy of Sciences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(3), pages 1383-1415, September.
    7. Yoguel, Gabriel & Brixner, Cristián & Lerena, Octavio & Minervini, Mariana, 2021. "The relationship between universities and business: identification of thematic communities," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    8. Ryan, Paul & Geoghegan, Will & Hilliard, Rachel, 2018. "The microfoundations of firms’ explorative innovation capabilities within the triple helix framework," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 76, pages 15-27.
    9. Becher, Michael & Stegmueller, Daniel, 2019. "Cognitive Ability, Union Membership, and Voter Turnout," IAST Working Papers 19-97, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    10. Barnard, H. & Cowan, R. & Müller, M., 2012. "Global excellence at the expense of local diffusion, or a bridge between two worlds? Research in science and technology in the developing world," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 756-769.
    11. Rémi Piatek & Pia Pinger, 2016. "Maintaining (Locus of) Control? Data Combination for the Identification and Inference of Factor Structure Models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 734-755, June.
    12. Yongli Tang & Kazuyuki Motohashi & Xinyue Hu & Angeles Montoro-Sanchez, 2020. "University-industry interaction and product innovation performance of Guangdong manufacturing firms: the roles of regional proximity and research quality of universities," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 578-618, April.
    13. Han, Fang & Zhang, Ruhao & Zhang, Shengtai & Yuan, Junpeng, 2024. "International mobility characteristics, effects of, and effects on elite scientists," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    14. Mazzoleni, Roberto & Nelson, Richard R., 2007. "Public research institutions and economic catch-up," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1512-1528, December.
    15. Barnard, Helena & Cowan, Robin & Muller, Moritz, 2010. "Global excellence at the expense of local relevance, or a bridge between two worlds? Research in science and technology in the developing world," MERIT Working Papers 2010-051, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    16. Gu, Jiangwei & Pan, Xuelian & Zhang, Shuxin & Chen, Jiaoyu, 2024. "International mobility matters: Research collaboration and scientific productivity," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2).
    17. Pedro Aceituno-Aceituno & Joaquín Danvila-del-Valle & Abel González García & Carlos Bousoño-Calzón, 2021. "Scientific Mobility, Training and Entrepreneurial Skills in Health Sciences: The Spanish Case," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-22, February.
    18. Corvello, Vincenzo & Belas, Jaroslav & Giglio, Carlo & Iazzolino, Gianpaolo & Troise, Ciro, 2023. "The impact of business owners’ individual characteristics on patenting in the context of digital innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    19. Chen, Zhuo & Yang, Zhenbing & Yang, Lili, 2020. "How to optimize the allocation of research resources? An empirical study based on output and substitution elasticities of universities in Chinese provincial level," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    20. Lawson, Cornelia & Salter, Ammon & Hughes, Alan & Kitson, Michael, 2019. "Citizens of somewhere: Examining the geography of foreign and native-born academics’ engagement with external actors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 759-774.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Scientific mobility; Doctoral studies; University evaluation; Developing country; South Africa; Technological upgrading;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F63 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Economic Development
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O20 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - General
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

    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:eee:respol:v:47:y:2018:i:5:p:886-900. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    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.