Science under sanctions: The impact of the entity list on Chinese academic research

Xiaodie Pu, Xintong Wang, Di Tong, Alain Yee Loong Chong

Research Policy · 2026 · Volume 55 · Issue 9

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2026.105584

Abstract

This study examines the effects of geopolitical tensions and technology-related sanctions on academic research, with a focus on the U.S. Entity List's inclusion of Chinese academic institutions. Using a comprehensive dataset of academic publications from the Open Academic Graph, we employ a stacked event study design to estimate the causal effects of the Entity List sanctions on academic research productivity. Our findings reveal that Entity List sanctions reduce the quantity but improve the quality of research output among affected Chinese researchers. Mechanism analyses, supplemented by semi-structured interviews, show that these changes are driven by research diversification and collaboration network reconfiguration. Sanctioned researchers shift toward new topics and form partnerships with non-listed Chinese institutions, which serve as intermediaries that restore access to restricted resources and expose researchers to novel knowledge. Notably, we find no significant decline in collaboration with U.S.-based researchers, suggesting that sanctions reconfigure rather than sever international networks. Theoretically, this study extends the disruption-as-catalyst logic to geopolitically imposed resource constraints, showing that sanctions can trigger productive diversification. By demonstrating that sanctions affect research quantity and quality in opposing directions through specific behavioral mechanisms, this study also reconciles inconsistent findings in prior literature and advances our understanding of how geopolitical tensions reshape the global academic research landscape.

Keywords

Academics, Entity list, Geopolitical tensions, Research productivity, U.S.–China relations

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