Sabrina Howell教授谈AER（2017）创作心得 Sabrina Howell on AER (2017)
本文最初于 2023 年 12 月 12 日 发布于微信公众号 Impactful Research；2026 年 4 月 28 日 同步至本网站。
Originally published on the WeChat official account Impactful Research on 2023-12-12; mirrored to this website on 2026-04-28.
来源：Google图文
这个公众号的第十九篇文章，我们很荣幸邀请到纽约大学的Sabrina T. Howell教授分享她于2017年发表在经济学顶级期刊 American Economic Review 上关于金融创新的文章。截至本文刊发时间，该文章在Google Scholar的引用量已超过960次。
以下是Sabrina Howell教授分享的 **Financing Innovation: Evidence from R &D Grants **这篇文章的创作历程。
本文正文内容约两千字，全文阅读需约十分钟
#本期访谈主要问题
1. 您是关于这一领域的研究兴趣是如何产生的？
2. 您在这篇文章写作和投稿的过程中遇到过的最大的困难是什么？
3. 您觉得这篇文章具有如此重大影响力的主要原因是什么？
4. 您对有兴趣从事创业融资研究的研究生或者年轻学者有什么建议吗？
Q1：您是关于这一领域的研究兴趣是如何产生的？
Q1: How did you develop your research interests in this area?
我对创新的兴趣起源于我读博期间研究清洁能源政策的时候。我缠着美国能源部要一个关于拨款申请和批准的数据要了很多年，我想用它来评估拨款是否对企业有用，这是一个关于小型企业受资创新的项目（非常合适去做，因为必需的数据都已经有了）。为了了解这些公司在做什么（尤其是我样本中最成功的公司），我开始参与创业活动并参观致力于清洁技术初创公司的企业孵化器。我当时在哈佛大学读书，但清洁技术创业领域的所有活动都在麻省理工学院附近进行，所以我总往那边跑。对于那些同时身为企业家和科学家的人，我喜欢他们那种解决大问题时的热情和激情。我还发现风险投资领域令人着迷。这让我更加关注创业和创新的过程。（比如）新的创意从何产生？它们如何被保护和资助？
I became interested in innovation while working on clean energy policy in graduate school. I had pestered the U.S. Department of Energy for years to get a dataset of grant applications and approvals that I could use to evaluate whether the grants were useful to firms. The program that was amenable to research (because the required records existed) funded innovation at small firms. To understand what these firms were doing (especially the most successful ones in my sample) I started attending startup events and visiting incubators devoted to clean tech startups. I was studying at Harvard, but all the action in the clean tech startup sector was around MIT, so that’s where I would go. I loved the enthusiasm and passion of the entrepreneur-scientists for solving big problems, and found the venture capital sector fascinating. This led me to focus on the process of entrepreneurship and innovation more generally. Where do new ideas come from? How are they protected and funded?
Q2：您在这篇文章写作和投稿的过程中遇到过的最大的困难是什么？
Q2:What was the greatest challenge during the writing and revision of these papers?
创新是一个重要的话题，但要做出严谨的研究很难。我认为它面临着一个特别尖锐的权衡，即在提出一个大家普遍感兴趣的好问题与做一个识别准确、能够迈过顶级期刊因果解释的高门槛的分析之间的取舍。 我认为我的第一篇关于能源部研发补助金的论文虽然非常成功，但提出的问题是相当局限的。而我那篇关于大学资金来源如何影响研究成果的论文虽然可以说解释了一个更大的话题，但在审稿过程中阻碍重重，因为它的实证设计没有那么优秀。因此，我们的编辑劝我们重新构思这篇文章，将重点放在联邦资金的作用上，排除特定资金冲击的影响，而不是研究替代公共资金与私人资金的广泛影响。
Innovation is an important topic, but it is difficult to study rigorously. I think it faces a particularly acute tradeoff between asking a good, general-interest question and doing a well-identified analysis that will pass the very high bar for causal interpretation at the top journals. I think my first paper on the Department of Energy R&D grants, while very successful, was asking a fairly narrow question. My paper on how the source of university funding affects research outputs addressed arguably a bigger topic, but struggled in the review process because it did not have as strong an empirical design. As a result, our editor urged us to reframe it to focus on the role of federal funding and isolate the effect of specific funding shocks, rather than studying the broader effects of substituting public vs. private funding.
Q3：您觉得这篇文章具有如此重大影响力的主要原因是什么？
Q3: From your perspective, what are the main reasons that make these papers impactful?
基本要素是（它本身得是）一个好问题，相关背景的高质量数据，以及优秀的实证设计。 当然，这说起来容易做起来难。但我认为研究人员（包括我自己）常常没有自问：结论是什么？我们知道了什么以前不知道的东西？一篇论文应该有一个“伟大的想法”，并聚焦于证明它。
The basic ingredients are a good question, high-quality data from a relevant context, and a strong empirical design. Of course, this is easier said than done! But I think often researchers (including myself) fail to ask: What is the takeaway? What do we learn that we didn’t know before? A paper should have one “big idea,” and be laser-focused on proving it out.
一个你在背后可以做的努力是学会营销。 你可以通过写好文章、广泛参会，以及尝试在其他学校展示来宣传你的作品。您甚至可以联系记者，看看他们是否愿意报道你的论文。
One thing you can do on the back end is sales: By writing well, submitting widely to conferences, and trying to get presentation slots at other schools, you can disseminate your work. You can even reach out to journalists to see if they might be willing to cover your paper.
Q4：您对有兴趣从事创业融资研究的研究生或者年轻学者有什么建议吗？
Q4: Do you have any advice for grad students or other young scholars interested in doing research in entrepreneurial finance?
找到你的导师并多寻求建议。多结识业内人士，并尝试尽可能多地获取有关你项目的反馈。另外，请确保优先做自己的工作，不要在与前辈的论文中过多地陷入“本质是研究助理的合著者”的困境。但遗憾的是，如果你没有自己发表的作品，你可能不会凭这些文章获得好评。
Find mentors, and ask for lots of advice. Meet lots of people in the profession and try to extract as much feedback on your projects as you can. Also, make sure to prioritize your own work and not get stuck as the “co-author who is really an RA” on papers with seniors too much. Unfortunately, if you don’t have your own well-published work, you may not get credit for these papers.
学者简介：
Sabrina T. Howell目前在纽约大学Stern商学院担任金融学长聘副教授，同时也是美国国家经济研究所（NBER）研究员、亚洲财经研究所（ABFER）研究员和私人资本研究所（IPC）研究员，以及Review of Financial Studies、Review of Corporate Finance Studies的副编辑。2023年，她入选 Poets & Quants “40位40岁以下最佳MBA教授”榜单。此前，她于2008年在耶鲁大学取得学士学位，2015年在哈佛大学取得博士学位。她的研究领域包括创业融资、创新、金融科技、私募股权和中国问题。
参考文献：
Howell, Sabrina T. “Financing Innovation: Evidence from R&D Grants.” American Economic Review 107.4 (2017): 1136-64.
| 责任编辑 | 阮天悦 |
| 整理翻译 | 庞乃琛 |
| 校对 | Sabrina Howell |