Capital Advantages: Could Colleges and Universities Located in Beijing City Win More National Social Science Fund Projects?

Capital Advantages: Could Colleges and Universities Located in Beijing City Win More National Social Science Fund Projects?

Applied Economics

Chengzheng Li, Yunyun Wang

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between the distance a college/university from Beijing city and the number of the National Social Science Fund projects it undertakes. We find that geographical location of a college/university is closely related to the number of National Social Science Fund projects it undertakes, and per hundred kilometres far away from Beijing city will result in a decrease of the number of projects by 0.24–0.50. In addition, colleges and universities located in Beijing city have significant advantages over those located in other places with more projects of 1.74–5.68. It is also shown that, for colleges and universities, especially for those top 100, the availability of high-speed railway to Beijing city significantly increases the probability of winning the National Social Science Fund projects.

Keywords: The National Social Science Fund of China; University ranking; Geographical location; The project 985; The project 211

JEL classification: O30; O18; D60; L31