Is the national talent project effective? Evidence from the Chinese academic accounting leading talents project

Abstract

Based on the list of re-examination and selection of the two sessions of China’s Academic Accounting Leading Talent Project of the Ministry of Finance, we directly evaluate the policy effect of the talent project with a Difference-in-Difference approach. We find that, compared with the talents who are not selected in the project, the chosen talents publish more papers after being selected (18.2% higher), and more articles signed as the first author. The incremental downloads and citation rates of these papers after the selection are also more significant than those of the unselected ones. A series of sensitivity test also supports our main findings. Additional research finds that the results of the talent project are more significant for scholars who published fewer papers in the past and for scholars who got doctorates degree from ‘non-985’ universities. The above findings document that Chinese government projects aimed at the selection and cultivation of talent have a significantly positive effect.