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Josh Graff Zivin's Research Featured in The Boston Globe

When breakthroughs follow failure

06/20/2011
Carolyn Y. Johnson, The Boston Globe

Letting scientists fail may be key to motivating the kind of exploration that ultimately leads to big breakthroughs and innovation, according to new research by MIT economists.
        
Each year, the federal government, nonprofit organizations, and companies funnel billions of dollars into scientific and biomedical research, but the new findings suggest that something as subtle as how grants are structured may influence the type of scientific output: incremental progress or a transformative new idea.

Biologists who were given more time and latitude in their research — as well as the freedom to fail — before they were evaluated produced more hit papers and more duds, according to the new study, to be published in the RAND Journal of Economics.

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Josh Graff Zivin is Associate Professor of International Relations and Pacific Studies and Affiliated Faculty of Economics. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Research Director for International Environmental and Health Studies at the Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC).

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