Money, Time, and Grant Design

Abstract

We conduct survey experiments to test how the design of scientific grants—the money and time awarded—can be used to manage researchers. On average, researchers are relatively unwilling to trade off money for time when choosing among grants. However, there is significant heterogeneity in researchers' preferences. Conditional on receiving a grant, different designs cause only minor changes in researchers' plans for how they would use the funding. Marginal changes in grant design are more relevant for selection effects (funders' ability to attract certain researchers) than treatment effects (funders' ability to change researchers' strategies). (JEL C83, I23, O31)