dc.contributor.advisor | Pierre Azoulay. | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Kearney, Michael J.(Michael Joseph) | en_US |
dc.contributor.other | Sloan School of Management. | en_US |
dc.date.accessioned | 2019-07-18T20:34:51Z | |
dc.date.available | 2019-07-18T20:34:51Z | |
dc.date.copyright | 2019 | en_US |
dc.date.issued | 2019 | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121833 | |
dc.description | Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2019 | en_US |
dc.description | Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. | en_US |
dc.description | Includes bibliographical references (pages 31-34). | en_US |
dc.description.abstract | There is a long-standing tradition in public research funding agencies of distributing funds via peer review, which aggregates evaluations of proposed research ideas from a group of external experts. Despite complaints that this process is biased against novel ideas, there is poor understanding of an alternative system that may overcome this bias: the use of individual discretion. Here, we conduct the first quantitative study of how individual discretion affects a research funding portfolio. Using internal project selection data from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), we describe how a portfolio of projects selected by individual discretion differs from a portfolio of projects selected by traditional peer review. We show that ARPA-E program directors prefer to fund proposals with greater disagreement among experts, especially if at least one reviewer thinks highly of the proposal. This preference leads ARPA-E to fund more uncertain and creative research ideas, which supports the agency's mission of pursuing novel ideas for transformational energy technology. | en_US |
dc.description.statementofresponsibility | by Michael Kearney. | en_US |
dc.format.extent | 40 pages | en_US |
dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
dc.publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | en_US |
dc.rights | MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. | en_US |
dc.rights.uri | http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 | en_US |
dc.subject | Sloan School of Management. | en_US |
dc.title | Uncertainty and individual discretion in allocating research funds | en_US |
dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
dc.description.degree | S.M. in Management Research | en_US |
dc.contributor.department | Sloan School of Management | en_US |
dc.identifier.oclc | 1108621005 | en_US |
dc.description.collection | S.M.inManagementResearch Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management | en_US |
dspace.imported | 2019-07-18T20:34:47Z | en_US |
mit.thesis.degree | Master | en_US |
mit.thesis.department | Sloan | en_US |