Previous research has found that funding disparities are driven by applications’ final impact scores and that only a portion of the black/white funding gap can be explained by bibliometrics and topic choice. Using National Institutes of Health R01 applications for council years 2014–2016, we examine assigned reviewers’ preliminary overall impact and criterion scores to evaluate whether racial disparities in impact scores can be explained by application and applicant characteristics. We hypothesize that differences in commensuration—the process of combining criterion scores into overall impact scores—disadvantage black applicants. Using multilevel models and matching on key variables including career stage, gender, and area of science, we find little evidence for racial disparities emerging in the process of combining preliminary criterion scores into preliminary overall impact scores. Instead, preliminary criterion scores fully account for racial disparities—yet do not explain all of the variability—in preliminary overall impact scores.

Purpose-The solvency of insurance companies is closely related to the policyholders, and consequently regulators in Taiwan pay considerable attention to this area. Several studies have demonstrated a close correlation among capital structure, operational risk and profitability. This study provides evidence regarding the influence of capital structure and operational risk on profitability of life insurance industry in Taiwan. Design/methodology/approach-Structural equation modeling, which involves factor-analysis and path-analysis, is used to justify the relationship among capital structure, operational risk and profitability. Additionally, adding the macroeconomic latent variable to the model as a control variable demonstrates that the macroeconomic latent variable positively influences capital structure, operational risk and profitability. Findings-This study leads to four key findings. First, according to the empirical result, the research model has excellent goodness-of-fit. That is to say, using multiple financial indexes suitably measures the specific financial factors. Second, the capital structure exerts a negative and significant effect on operational risk. Third, there is no reciprocal relationship but a one-way effect between capital structure and operational risk. Fourth, the operational risk exerts a negative and significant effect on profitability. Practical implications-The empirical result shows the profitability decreased with the higher equity ratio. Hence, the regulatory organizations must urge insurance companies to effectively diversify their investments and employ risk avoidance strategies. Effective use of hedging and diversifying will help to divide risk and create financial revenue. Original / value-This study proposes that the government loosen investment restrictions and develop other instruments to assist RBC in checking the financial condition of insurance companies.

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the largest source of funding for biomedical research in the world. Funding decisions are made largely based on the outcome of a peer review process that is intended to provide a fair, equitable, timely, and unbiased review of the quality, scientific merit, and potential impact of the research. There have been concerns about the criteria reviewers are using, and recent changes in review procedures at the NIH now make it possible to conduct an analysis of how reviewers evaluate applications for funding. This study examined the criteria and overall impact scores recorded by assigned reviewers for R01 grant applications. The results suggest that all the scored review criteria, including innovation, are related to the overall impact score. Further, good scores are necessary on all five scored review criteria, not just the score for research methodology, in order to achieve a good overall impact score.