Is research output determined by your type of institution more than your skill?
Is research output determined by your type of institution more than your skill?


Almost definitely. It doesn't matter how much skill you have if you do not actually use the skill. There, however, are people at R1s who do not have the needed skills to be successful researchers.

Your comments like


  Consequently, people who look at Scholar B's academic record ten or twenty years after his Ph.D. confidently conclude that he is a mediocre scholar, who would never have been fit for an R1 that hires top scholars.


and


  But Scholar B ends up being deemed "not very smart" because he produces little research.


are not universally true. I don't know many people who judge intelligence (i.e., smartness) based on research output. In my field we often have to evaluate how people who chose to work in industry will be able to fit into an R1 environment.