PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Spatial proximity may facilitate scientific collaboration. We regress its impact within two German research institutions, defining collaboration strength and proximity by the number of joint publications and spatial distance between work places. The methodological focus lies on accounting for (i) the dependency structure in network data and (ii) excess zeros in the sparse target matrix. The former can be addressed by a quadratic assignment procedure (QAP), the second by a hurdle model. To offer a joint solution, we combine the methods to novel parametric and non-parametric hurdle-QAP models. The analysis reveals that proximity can facilitate collaboration, but significant effects get lost within building structures. Outcomes of this study may inform about how to target the promotion of interdisciplinary research.