ShanghaiTech SEM Working Paper No. 2022-002
Xiyi Yang
ShanghaiTech University
Xiaoyu Zhou
ShanghaiTechr Univeristy
Cong Cao
University of Nottingham Ningbo China
Since the mid-twentieth century, big-science research infrastructure (RI) has become an indispensable component for scientists to explore fundamental scientific breakthroughs. However, due to its extremely expensive constructional and operational cost, whether and how RIs can effectively and efficiently boost the development of science and technology remains a controversial debate in emerging countries. To address this concern, we focus our investigation on the impact of a major RI, the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF), on China's production of science. We assemble a unique dataset of China’s scientific publications and apply a difference-in-difference design to assess the casual relationship between the SSRF and Chinese scientists’ indigenous publications. We find that for affected scientific disciplines, the establishment of SSRF caused 43.5% and 18% increases in the number and percentage of highquality indigenous publications, respectively, and a 21% increase in the overall impact factor of indigenous publications. Combined, our findings suggest that SSRF has led to a quantitative and qualitative growth of China’s indigenous science. Such findings have important implications for public policy design and a better understanding of the current global technological competition. The study also addresses the concern that China lacks originality and indigenous innovation capability.
Date Written: March 25, 2022
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4057359
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【No. 2022-002】Modernizing the Chinese Way Effect of Big-Science Research Infrastructure on China’s Indigenous Science Growth.pdf
