growth effect is the reason why the cumulative improvement of MPI of non-985Us
is better than that of 985Us.
Secondly, from 2006 to 2010, both 985Us and non-985Us show nearly no
improvement in their SEC indexes, nonetheless, the latter slightly outperforms the
former. During thefive years, SEC indexes of both group decreased atfirst and
increased afterward—a small decline in 2007–2008, and back to slight uptrend in
the rest of years. Relative to base year, thefive-year cumulative SEC improvement
of 985Us was merely 0.2%, while that of non-985Us is as large as 1.4%. Moreover,
in 2006–2007 and 2007–2008, the SEC index of 985Us is reduced by 1.1 and 2.5%
respectively, resulting into the cumulative decrease of SEC index in 2008 and 2009.
To NEAM research of non-985Us, the SEC indexes in 2007–2008 and 2009– 2010
are reduced by 3.3 and 2% respectively, straightly resulting into the cumulative
change rate reduced by 1.2% relative to the base year 2006. However, the SEC
improvement of non-985Us is very substantial in 2007 and 2009, which, to some
extent, offsets the negative effect, andfinally makes non-985Us outperform 985Us
across thefive years.
Thirdly, from 2006 to 2010, the TEC indexes of both groups are in the same
trend, going up steadily but slightly. The catch-up effect is the major cause of TEC
improvements of both groups, SEC has hardly any contribution. During thesefive
years, the TEC index and PTEC index of 985Us are cumulatively increased by 4
and 3.3% respectively, while those of non-985Us are cumulatively increased by 7.9
and 6.4% respectively.
5.2.2 HSS Disciplines.................................
5.2.2.1 Annual Productivity Changes of 985Us and Non-985Us
In this subsection, wefirst analyze the annual changes of Malmquist-TFP index and
its decomposition of HSS research separately in 985Us and non-985Us. The
detailed results are presented in Tables5.13and5.14in Appendix. In Fig.5.6,we
plot thefive-year (2006–2010) geometric mean of TFP index and its decomposition
separately in 985Us and non-985Us.
Overall speaking, it appears that research productivity changes of HSS disci-
plines in both groups are not in a good status during 2006–2010, and non-985Us
even step in the downtrend. On the decomposition indexes of research productivity,
985Us outperforms non-985Us all along, which is very different from the results of
NEAM disciplines. One similarity between NEAM and HSS disciplines is that, the
major source of their research productivity improvements is the growth effect
accompanying with TC improvement. More detailed discussions can be made as
below.
Firstly, TFP indexes of both groups are not in a good status, and TFP index of
non-985Us is in the downtrend during thesefive years. The annual TFP change rate
5.2 Differences and Trends on Research Productivity of 985Us and Non-985Us 229