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Type	Working Paper
Scope	Discipline-based scholarship
Title	Do Research Training Groups Operate at Optimal Size?
Organization Unit	Empirical Research in Business, Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management (Uschi Backes-Gellner)
Authors	Kerstin Pull Birgit Pferdmenges Uschi Backes-Gellner
Institution	University of Zurich
Series Name	UZH Business Working Paper Series
Number	367
ISSN	2296-0422
Number of Pages	19
Date	2017
Abstract Text	In this paper, we analyze whether structured PhD programs operate at optimal size and whether there are differences between different disciplinary fields. Theoretically, we postulate that the relation between the size of a PhD program and program performance is hump shaped. For our empirical analysis, we use hand-collected data on 86 Research Training Groups (RTGs) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). As performance indicators, we use (a) the number of completed PhDs and (b) the number of publications by RTG students (PhD students and postdoctoral researchers). Applying DEA with constant and variable returns to scale, we find that the optimal team size varies between 10 and 16 RTG students in the humanities and social sciences. In contrast, our empirical analysis does not uncover a systematic relation between size and performance for RTGs in the natural and life sciences.
Other Identification Number	merlin-id:18183
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