Productivity Effects of Research Assessment Exercises

_____________________________________________________________________________ This paper provides an empirical estimation of the research productivity effects associated with periodic Research Assessment Exercises. From a sample of academic economists in the UK, data are taken directly from each individual’s vita, permitting us to construct a detailed longitudinal data set with specific productivity measures at various points along each individual’s experience-productivity profile. Our general approach was to measure individual productivity levels during a period immediately before each RAE event and for a period immediately after the event. Our results suggest that these periodic assessment exercises have increased the cumulative research productivity of individuals over time. These productivity enhancing effects have not been uniformly distributed across RAE ranked departments or across individuals within similar ranked programmes, however. Individuals at higher-ranked programmes tended to respond by increasing their research output in higher-quality journals, while individuals at other programmes tended to increase their publications in other outlets. Finally, the productivity response occurred primarily among individuals whose pre-RAE output was below the requisite number of publications required to be included in the RAE. _______________________________________________________________________