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PRWP

Reproducibility package for Federal Research Funding And STEM Education

2026
Get Reproducibility Package
Reference ID
RR_USA_2026_618
DOI
https://doi.org/10.60572/9b2n-wc47
Author(s)
Emily Cook, Devaki Ghose, Ekaterina Khmelnitskaya
Collections
World Bank Policy Research Working Papers
Metadata
JSON
Created on
May 27, 2026
Last modified
Jun 03, 2026
Page views
6
  • Project Description
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  • Overview
  • Reproducibility Package
  • Description
  • Scope and coverage
  • Disclaimer
  • Access and rights
  • Contacts
  • Information on metadata
  • Citation
  • Overview

    Abstract

    We examine how federal science and engineering research funding—though intended to advance research—affects degree production and programs offered in STEM. Using data from 1971–2016, we implement a triple-difference design that exploits variation across colleges, time, and fields of study. We find that federal grants generate 27.4% of doctorates and 14.7% of undergraduate STEM degrees, as well as 6.3% of doctoral programs and 3.7% of undergraduate programs in STEM annually across 200 U.S. research universities. Impacts are concentrated in biology and engineering, aligning with the priorities of major funders such as HHS, NSF, and DOD. These findings suggest that research grants to universities may generate a “double dividend,” simultaneously expanding the supply of skilled labor in targeted fields while also advancing scientific discovery.

    Reproducibility Package

    Scripts
    Readme Get Reproducibility Package
    Link: https://reproducibility.worldbank.org/catalog/569/download/1688/README.pdf
    Reproducibility package for Federal Research Funding And STEM Education
    File name
    RR_USA_2026_618
    Zip package
    RR_USA_2026_618.zip
    Title
    Reproducibility package for Federal Research Funding And STEM Education
    Date
    2026-05
    Dependencies
    Stata dependencies are listed in the ado folder.
    Instructions
    See README in reproducibility package.
    Notes
    Computational reproducibility verified by Development Impact (DECDI) Analytics team, World Bank.
    Source code repository
    Repository name URI
    Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank) https://reproducibility.worldbank.org
    Software
    Stata
    Name
    Stata
    Version
    19.5 MP

    Reproducibility

    Technology environment

    Paper exhibits were reproduced on a computer with the following specifications:
    • OS: Windows 11 Enterprise
    • Processor: INTEL(R) XEON(R) PLATINUM 8562Y+ (2.80 GHz) (2 processors)
    • Memory available: 32 GB

    Technology requirements

    Run time: ~ 50 minutes.

    Reproduction instructions

    To reproduce the findings in this paper, a replicator must:

    1. Secure Access to Data: Access the datasets not included in the package. See the Datasets section for more details.
    2. Run the Package:
    • Update the working directory in line 9 of the do-file main, and run it.

    Since all the data is not included, the package includes the results produced by replicators. These files can be used to review the results presented in the paper.

    Data

    Datasets
    College Board College Handbook – Admissions Data
    Name
    College Board College Handbook – Admissions Data
    Note
    Data accessed from print editions of the College Board's College Handbook (1968 to 2002), covering 34 academic years. Institution-level SAT and ACT score distributions manually digitized by the authors from annual print volumes. Each sheet in the Excel file corresponds to one year. File location: Data/Raw/All Admissions Data.xlsx (Sheets 1–26).
    Access policy
    Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.
    Citation
    College Board. Various years. "The College Handbook" [dataset]. New York: College Board. Data digitized by the authors from print volumes.
    Crosswalk Between CIP and HEGIS Taxonomy, 1981
    Name
    Crosswalk Between CIP and HEGIS Taxonomy, 1981
    Note
    Data accessed in May 2017. Fixed-width text file downloaded from ICPSR mapping HEGIS taxonomy codes to CIP codes and program titles. Used to construct a crosswalk between HEGIS subject codes and CIP codes for the 1983 and 1984 transitional survey years. Data is freely available to data users at ICPSR member institutions. File location: Data/Raw/HEGIS_Degrees/CIP_HEGIS_Crosswalk_1981/03135-0001-Data.txt.
    Access policy
    Data access requires purchase or human approval and is not included in the reproducibility package.
    License URL
    https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/sites/icpsr/about/policies/terms-of-use
    Data URL
    https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/studies/3135
    Citation
    United States Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Crosswalk Between CIP and HEGIS Taxonomy, 1981. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2003-12-02. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03135.v1
    Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS)
    Name
    Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS)
    Note
    Data accessed in May–June 2017. Annual HEGIS microdata files downloaded from ICPSR. Includes three components: (1) Degrees Conferred (1965–66 through 1984–85, 17 files): one record per institution–field–degree level combination, reporting degrees conferred by sex across bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and first-professional degrees. File locations: Data/Raw/HEGIS_Degrees/{year}_ICPSR_{dataset no}/; (2) Financial Statistics (1968–69 through 1985–86, 18 files): institution-level revenues and expenditures. File locations: Data/Raw/HEGIS_Finance/{year}_Finance_{dataset no}/; (3) Institutional Characteristics (selected years: 1970, 1972–1974, 1977–1978, 1983, 7 files): institution-level tuition, fees, room and board, control type, and affiliation. File locations: Data/Raw/HEGIS_InstitutionalChars/{year}_InstChar_ICPSR_{dataset no}/. Individual ICPSR study URLs for each year are listed in the README, and detailed instructions to download the files are included in the file "HEGISDataDownloadGuide". Data is freely available to data users at ICPSR member institutions.
    Access policy
    Data access requires purchase or human approval and is not included in the reproducibility package.
    License URL
    https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/sites/icpsr/about/policies/terms-of-use
    Data URL
    https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/studies
    Citation
    United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. 1965–1986. "Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS)" [dataset]. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]. https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/series/30. Accessed May 2017.
    Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) – Completions, Finance, and Institutional Characteristics Surveys
    Name
    Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) – Completions, Finance, and Institutional Characteristics Surveys
    Note
    Data accessed in June 2017. Annual IPEDS microdata files downloaded from the NCES IPEDS Data Center. Includes three components: (1) Completions Survey (1987–2020, 34 files): one record per institution–CIP code–degree level combination, reporting degrees conferred by sex. Files named dct_c{year}.dta. File location: Data/Raw/IPEDS_Degrees/; (2) Finance Survey (1987–2022): institution-level revenues and expenditures. File location: Data/Raw/IPEDS_Finance/; (3) Institutional Characteristics Survey (1987–2023): institution-level tuition, fees, control type, and other institutional attributes. Files are split across multiple parts per year (ranging from two to seven). For years 2014–2023, the Admissions component is also included. File location: Data/Raw/IPEDS_InstitutionalChars/. Detailed instructions to download the files can be found in the README.
    Access policy
    Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.
    License URL
    https://ies.ed.gov/about/public-access-research
    Data URL
    https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/DataFiles.aspx
    Citation
    United States Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. 1987–2023. Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). U.S. Department of Education [distributor]. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/DataFiles.aspx. Accessed June 2017.
    NCES Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) – All CIP 1985–2000 Tables
    Name
    NCES Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) – All CIP 1985–2000 Tables
    Note
    Data accessed in September 2024. Excel file containing all CIP code lists and crosswalks for the 1985, 1990, and 2000 taxonomies. Detailed instructions to download the files can be found in the README. File location: Data/Raw/All CIP.xls.
    Access policy
    Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.
    License URL
    https://ies.ed.gov/about/public-access-research
    Data URL
    https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/resources.aspx?y=55
    Citation
    National Center for Education Statistics. Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP): All CIP 1985–2000 Tables. U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/resources.aspx?y=55. Accessed September 2024.
    Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions
    Name
    Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions
    Note
    Data accessed in September 2025. Microdata files containing records of federal research funding obligations by institution and agency (1971–present), obtained directly from National Science Foundation (NSF) staff. Three files: (1) data_obligation.dta — main funding records; (2) c_agency.dta — agency codes and labels; (3) c_inst_codebook.dta — institution identifiers including name, FICE code, state, and institution type. File location: Data/Raw/FSS_Support_Survey/Microdata_stata_export/.
    Access policy
    Data access was granted directly to the study authors by the data owners. It allows for redistribution and it is included in the reproducibility package.
    Citation
    National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. 2025. "Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions" [dataset]. Microdata, 1971–present. Data provided by NSF staff. Accessed September 2025.
    NSF Federal Support to Universities and Colleges, Fiscal Years 1963–1970
    Name
    NSF Federal Support to Universities and Colleges, Fiscal Years 1963–1970
    Note
    Data accessed in July 2024. Author-digitized Excel files containing institution-level total federal research funding data for fiscal years 1963–1970, manually transcribed from scanned NSF annual reports available through HathiTrust and ERIC. No digital data version exists; the original print reports are public domain government documents. Five files covering FY 1963–1970. Individual report URLs are listed in the README. File location: Data/Raw/FSS_Support_Survey/FSS_support_preperiod/.
    Access policy
    Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.
    License URL
    https://www.hathitrust.org/the-collection/search-access/access-use-policy/
    Data URL
    https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record
    Citation
    Authors' compilation. 2024. "NSF Federal Support to Universities and Colleges, Fiscal Years 1963–1970" [dataset]. Digitized from: National Science Foundation. Federal Support to Universities and Colleges, Fiscal Years 1963–1970.
    Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 1994 Edition
    Name
    Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 1994 Edition
    Note
    Data accessed in July 2021. Institution-level data from the 1994 Carnegie Classification used to identify and filter the analysis sample to doctoral/research universities. Contains institution identifiers including FICE code, UNITID, institution name, and state. Note: the 1994 version is no longer available online. File locations: Data/Raw/Carnegie_1994_edition_data.xls; Data/Raw/Carnegie_1994_edition_data.csv.
    Access policy
    Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.
    License
    Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
    Data URL
    https://carnegieclassifications.acenet.edu/
    Citation
    Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 1994. "A Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 1994 Edition" [dataset]. Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Accessed July 2021.
    Consumer Price Index, 1913–present
    Name
    Consumer Price Index, 1913–present
    Note
    Data accessed in February 2020 and May 2024. Annual CPI values from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis used to construct deflator multipliers to real 2019 and real 2022 dollars. Two files: (1) CPI_long_2019.dta — deflates to real 2019 dollars; (2) CPI_long_2022.dta — deflates to real 2022 dollars. File location: Data/Raw/.
    Access policy
    Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.
    License URL
    https://www.minneapolisfed.org/site-information/disclaimer
    Data URL
    https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator/consumer-price-index-1913-
    Citation
    Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Consumer Price Index, 1913–presen. https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator/consumer-price-index-1913-. Accessed February 2020 and May 2024.
    HEGIS Subject Code Lookup Tables
    Name
    HEGIS Subject Code Lookup Tables
    Note
    Author-constructed lookup tables mapping HEGIS subject codes (ITEMNUM) to field names, covering three distinct ranges of survey years reflecting changes in HEGIS's subject coding taxonomy over time. Used to label degree records before HEGIS switched to CIP codes in 1983. Three files: (1) lookupfields_65_67.dta (1965–1967); (2) lookupfields_68.dta (1968); (3) lookupfields_70_81.dta (1970–1981). File location: Data/Raw/HEGIS_Degrees/.
    Access policy
    Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.
    Citation
    Authors' compilation. "HEGIS Subject Code Lookup Tables" [dataset]. Based on HEGIS subject coding taxonomy documentation.
    State Identifier Crosswalk Files
    Name
    State Identifier Crosswalk Files
    Note
    Author-constructed crosswalk files mapping state identifier codes to state names, used to standardise geographic identifiers across HEGIS survey years. Two files: (1) states.dta — maps the OESTATE variable used in 1965–1967; (2) states2.dta — maps the GEOGCODE variable used from 1973 onward. File location: Data/Raw/HEGIS_Degrees/.
    Access policy
    Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.
    Citation
    Authors' compilation. "State Identifier Crosswalk Files" [dataset]. Based on HEGIS geographic identifier documentation.
    CIP 2000 to Broad Major Group Crosswalk
    Name
    CIP 2000 to Broad Major Group Crosswalk
    Note
    Author-constructed crosswalk mapping 2-digit CIP codes (2000 taxonomy) to seven broad major group categories used in the analysis: Arts and Architecture, Business and Communications, Education, Engineering/Math/Sciences, Health, Social Science and Humanities, and Vocational/Other. Used throughout IPEDS completions processing (1987–2020). File location: Data/Raw/2000aligncip.dta.
    Access policy
    Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.
    Citation
    Authors' compilation. "CIP 2000 to Broad Major Group Crosswalk" [dataset]. Based on the NCES Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) 2000 taxonomy.
    Data statement

    Some data is limited-access and has not been included in the reproducibility package. For more details, please refer to the README file.

    Description

    Output
    Federal Research Funding And STEM Education
    Type
    Working Paper
    Title
    Federal Research Funding And STEM Education
    Description
    Policy Research Working Papers (PRWP)
    Authors
    Author Affiliation Email
    Emily Cook Texas A&M University ecook4@tamu.edu
    Devaki Ghose World Bank dghose@worldbank.org
    Ekaterina Khmelnitskaya University of British Columbia, Sauder School of Business ekaterina.khmelnitskaya@sauder.ubc.ca
    Date of production

    2026-05-26

    Scope and coverage

    Geographic locations
    Location Code
    United States of America USA
    Keywords
    Federal Research Funding Higher Education Stem Major Choice Innovation
    Topics
    ID Topic Parent topic ID Vocabulary Vocabulary URI
    H52 Government Expenditures and Education H5 Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)
    I23 Higher Education • Research Institutions I2 Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)
    I28 Government Policy I2 Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)
    O31 Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives O3 Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)
    O38 Government Policy O3 Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)

    Disclaimer

    Disclaimer

    The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.

    Access and rights

    License
    Name URI
    MIT License https://opensource.org/license/mit
    World Bank IGO Rider https://github.com/worldbank/metadata-editor/blob/main/WB-IGO-RIDER.md

    Contacts

    Contacts
    Name Affiliation Email
    Emily Cook Texas A&M University ecook4@tamu.edu
    Reproducibility WBG World Bank reproducibility@worldbank.org

    Information on metadata

    Producers
    Name Abbreviation Affiliation Role
    Reproducibility WBG DECDI World Bank - Development Impact Department Verification and preparation of metadata
    Date of Production

    2026-05-26

    Document version

    1

    Citation

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