Around 1875, the US had none of the world’s leading research universities; today, it accounts for the majority of the top-ranked. Many observers cite events surrounding World War II as the source of this reversal. We present evidence that US research universities had surpassed most countries’ decades before World War II. An explanation of their dominance must therefore begin earlier. The one we offer highlights reforms that began after the Civil War and enhanced the incentives and resources the system directs at research. Our story is not one of success by design, but rather of competition leading American colleges to begin to care about research. We draw on agency theory to argue that this led to increasing academic specialization, and in turn, to more precise measures of professors’ research output. Combined with sorting dynamics that concentrated talent and resources at some schools—and the emergence of tenure—this enhanced research performance.

中文翻译：

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为什么美国拥有最好的研究型大学？激励、资源和良性循环

1875年左右，美国没有一所世界领先的研究型大学；今天，它占了排名靠前的大多数。许多观察家引用围绕二战的事件作为这种逆转的根源。我们提供的证据表明，美国研究型大学在二战前已经超过了大多数国家的几十年。因此，必须更早地开始解释它们的主导地位。我们提供的一项突出了内战后开始的改革，并增强了系统对研究的激励和资源。我们的故事不是设计上的成功，而是导致美国大学开始关注研究的竞争。我们借鉴代理理论认为，这导致了学术专业化的增加，反过来，对教授的研究成果进行了更精确的衡量。