Hometown Connections and Chinese Favoritism

A paper (abstract available here) published by the National Bureau of Economic Research studies the link between hometown connections in China and the rate of fellow selection into the Chinese Academies of Sciences and Engineering. Hometown ties increased the likelihood of a candidate’s selection by 39 percent during the in-person interview stage, indicating that the connection very likely plays a role in the fellow-selection process. Furthermore, those candidates elected with hometown ties “are half as likely to have a high-impact publication as elected fellows without connections,” the abstract says. Members in the Chinese Academies of Sciences and Engineering are more likely to hold institutional leadership positions and to receive additional funding -- about $9.5 million annually -- for their institutions.