First let me say no one has paid me to write. Secondly, it is unrealistic to think that the sponsorship would not influence authors, at least create a conflict of interest. From today's WSJ:
"In recent years, financial-services firms have found a new tool to help them drum up customers: the academic study. These papers are finding new life beyond the ivory tower, echoing the widely used—and controversial—medical research funded by pharmaceutical and other medical companies to back new drugs and devices. The studies cover the gamut of investing topics, including how best to pick mutual funds, set up a retirement plan or boost portfolio returns. The universities facilitating these studies and the professors writing them say they don't allow sponsors—which typically pay anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 for research—to do any meddling, and that academic freedom is always maintained."
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