Luís Grochocki, PHD Candidate, Stanford University
Academic Inbreeding and International Mobility in the Brazilian Higher Education System
For over a century, researchers have tried to understand why academic inbreeding happens and how it affects scientific production. Perfect consensus remains elusive, but many studies have shown it could be associated with lower academic performance. Countries have adopted policies to control for academic endogamy, but this is still common practice in different higher education systems, including Brazil’s. In this study, we use a large longitudinal database and look at the Brazilian higher education system to measure the level of inbreeding in the country and to estimate its effects on scientific and academic production. In particular, we ascertain whether types of scholars - such as those who never leave their doctoral institution (“homegrown”) or those that travel abroad to return later (“adapted”) – have differential effects.
