Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Corsini, Alberto
Author-Email: Alberto.CORSINI@univ-cotedazur.fr
Author-Workplace-Name: Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France
Author-Name: Pezzoni, Michele
Author-Email: michele.pezzoni@unice.fr
Author-Workplace-Name: Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, Observatoire
	 des Sciences et Techniques, HCERES, OFCE, SciencePo, France, and ICRIOS,
	 Bocconi University, Italy 
Author-Name: Visentin, Fabiana
Author-Email: visentin@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University
Title: What makes a productive Ph.D. student?
Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of the social environment to which a
	 Ph.D. student is exposed on her scientific productivity during the
	 training period. Vertical and horizontal relationships depict the social
	 environment. Vertical relationships are those supervisor-student, while
	 horizontal relationships are those student-peers. We characterize these
	 relationships by assessing how the supervisor's and peers' biographic
	 and academic characteristics relate to the student's productivity as
	 measured by the publication quantity, quality, and scientific network
	 size. Unique to our study, we cover the entire student population of a
	 European country for all the STEM fields. Specifically, we analyse the
	 productivity of 77,143 students who graduated in France between 2000 and
	 2014. We find that having a female supervisor is associated with a
	 higher student's productivity as well as being supervised by a
	 mid-career scientist and having a supervisor with a high academic
	 reputation. The supervisor's fundraising ability benefits only one
	 specific dimension of the student's productivity, i.e., the student's
	 work quality. Interestingly, the supervisor's mentorship experience
	 negatively associates with student's productivity. Having many peers
	 negatively associates with the student's productivity, especially if
	 peers are senior students. Having female peers positively correlates
	 with the student's productivity, while peers' academic status shows
	 mixed effects according to the productivity dimension considered. We
	 find results heterogeneity when breaking down our sample by field of
	 research.
Classification-JEL: J24, O30
Keywords: French Ph.D. students, Productivity determinants, Social environment,
	 Supervisor, Peers
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20210309
Number: 2021-011
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2021/wp2021-011.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2021011