Evaluation of the productivity in research program of the federal university of tocantins: A look under the optics of the behavioral economics

Abstract

The present study sought to understand the effects of the use of incentives on the productivity of teachers benefiting from the Research Productivity Program (PPP) of the Federal University of Tocantins (UFT), from the perspective of Behavioral Economics. It had as objectives, (i) to verify if through the incentives, the individuals increased or not the productivity in research; (ii) identify which individual characteristics most impacted individuals’ propensity to enter the program; (iii) to analyze whether the results obtained converged or diverged from the theory of behavioral economics. A documentary analysis (DA) was performed, where the Lattes curriculum of the 125 sample members were analyzed. With the results obtained in the DA, the impact assessment methods Propensity Score Matching and Difference in Differences were used to gauge the treatment effect. During the validity of the program, there was an increase in the average productivity in the two groups analyzed. In general, the results achieved converged with the theoretical assumptions of Behavioral Economics.