Spatial and non-spatial proximity drivers of scientific collaborations in Brazil

ABSTRACT

Proximity influences scientific collaborations in many ways. This paper examines the effects of proximity, such as geographical, social, institutional, organizational, and cognitive proximity, on the scientific production of pairs of Brazilian researchers. Based on rich data on scientific collaboration at the individual level, we apply the Zero Inflated Negative Binomial model to assess the drivers of the researchers’ scientific production from 2009 to 2017. The main results show that the scientific productivity of the pairs of researchers is positively associated with belonging to the same public research institution or the same organization, having previous and continuous collaborative relationships, having a high degree of centrality, living in the same state, and working in the same scientific field.

KEYWORDS:

• Scientific productivity
• scientific collaboration
• proximity dimensions
• academic researchers
• Brazil

JEL:

• D85
• D83
• O34

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 More details on ZINB models could be accessed in Lawless (1987) e Hilbe (2011).

2 Coefficients estimated for dummies concerning cognitive proximity can be shared upon request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank Brazilian support agencies such as the National Scientific and Technological Development Council - CNPq (grants 425318/2018-4, 309632/2018-8, 306.692/2021-0, and 403.486/2021-1), The Minas Gerais Research Funding Foundation for Master Degree grant (FAPEMIG), and The São Paulo Research Funding Foundation -FAPESP (grant 2019/03911-0). We are also grateful to the Economics Research Laboratory (ECONS) from UFJF for technical support and for providing us access to academic CVs of all researchers working in Brazil.