The Effects of Anti-corruption Campaign on Research Grant Reimbursement: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from China

Li Tang, Cong Cao, Donald Lien, Xiaoou Liu

Research output: Journal PublicationArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Integrity and research ethics are cherished institutions in academic world. Although most societies have rules and codes that govern ethical conducts in research, few studies have provided quantitative evidence on the impacts of these regulations and codes on the behaviors of researchers. In the context of a nationwide anti-corruption campaign in China, this paper evaluates the changes of principal investigators’ reimbursement behavior in a leading university when new reimbursement policies were introduced. Utilizing a novel grant dataset and a regression discontinuity design, we find that the new policies lowered PIs’ monthly average amount of reimbursement from research grants by 35%, which can be interpreted as a reduction in grant misuse. Following speculations we argue that institutionalizing orchestrated efforts on grant management, payroll systems, and research integrity education is in the right direction toward building China into a true scientific power.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3415-3436
Number of pages22
JournalScience and Engineering Ethics
Volume26
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2020

Keywords

  • Anti-corruption
  • China
  • Governance
  • Regression discontinuity design
  • Research ethics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • Issues, ethics and legal aspects
  • Health Policy
  • Management of Technology and Innovation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Effects of Anti-corruption Campaign on Research Grant Reimbursement: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from China'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this