Oleg Poldin - PhD, Senior Researcher at the Center for Institutional Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics.

Nataliya Matveeva - Doctoral Student, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Junior Researcher, Center for Institutional Studies,  National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: 25/12 Bolshaya Pecherskaya St., 603155, Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Federation. E-mail: nmatveeva@hse.ru

Ivan Sterligov - Director of the Scientometrics Center, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya St., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: isterligov@hse.ru

Maria Yudkevich - PhD, Vice-Rector, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Director of the Center for Institutional Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya St., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: yudkevich@hse.ru

We estimate the effects of the Russian University excellence program (Project 5–100) initiated by the Government in 2013 (Project 5–100) on the research performance of those leading Russian universities that received, on the competitive basis, substantial financial support within this program. While the publication output of Russian universities in general has increased in recent years, we estimate whether there is significant added value from the Program, that is, whether the extra increase in productivity takes place in selected universities. We use econometric analysis of longitudinal data applying the linear growth model with mixed effects, with the number of publications (total number, per capita, and publications in high-quality journals) as a dependent variable. We demonstrate that there is a positive significant effect of the Program that appears from the very first years of its implementation — that is, universities that received financial support demonstrate a substantial steady increase in publications measured in both total numbers and per capita (including publications in the top‑25% of journals) when compared to universities from the control group.