New NBER working paper by George J. Borjas and Kirk B. Doran: “Knowledge generation is key to economic growth, and scientific prizes are designed to encourage it. But how does winning a prestigious prize affect future output? We compare the productivity of Fields medalists (winners of the top mathematics prize) to that of similarly brilliant contenders. The two groups have similar publication rates until the award year, after which the winners’ productivity declines. The medalists begin to “play the field,” studying unfamiliar topics at the expense of writing papers. It appears that tournaments can have large post-prize effects on the effort allocation of knowledge producers.”
How to contribute:
Did you come across – or create – a compelling project/report/book/app at the leading edge of innovation in governance?
Share it with us at info@thelivinglib.org so that we can add it to the Collection!
About the Curator
Get the latest news right in you inbox
Subscribe to curated findings and actionable knowledge from The Living Library, delivered to your inbox every Friday
Related articles
DATA
A Global Relaunch of RD4C.org to Better Advance Responsible Data for Every Child, Everywhere
Posted in July 17, 2025 by Stefaan Verhulst
INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION
Augmented foresight
Posted in July 17, 2025 by Stefaan Verhulst
artificial intelligence
A foundation model to predict and capture human cognition
Posted in July 17, 2025 by Stefaan Verhulst