A Field Experiment on Search Costs and the Formation of Scientific Collaborations
通过在哈佛医学院的实地实验，发现降低搜索成本（如结构化信息分享会）能使科研人员合作申请资助的概率提高75%，表明即使在同一机构内，科学家匹配也存在显著摩擦。
We present the results of a field experiment conducted at Harvard Medical School to understand the extent to which search costs affect matching among scientific collaborators. We generated exogenous variation in search costs for pairs of potential collaborators by randomly assigning individuals to 90-minute structured information-sharing sessions as part of a grant funding opportunity. We estimate that the treatment increases the probability of grant co-application of a given pair of researchers by 75%. The findings suggest that matching between scientists is subject to considerable frictions, even in the case of geographically-proximate scientists working in the same institutional context.