Measuring The Social Return To R&D
Abstract
Is there too much or too little research and development (R&D)? In this paper we bridge the gap between the recent growth literature and the empirical productivity literature. We derive in a growth model the relationship between the social rate of return to R&D and the coefficient estimates of the empirical literature and show that these estimates represent a lower bound. Furthermore, our analytic framework provides a direct mapping from the rate of return to the degree of underinvestment in research. Conservative estimates suggest that optimal R&D investment is at least two to four times actual investment. © 2000 the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyDownload Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by MIT Press in its journal The Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Volume (Year): 113 (1998)
Issue (Month): 4 (November)
Pages: 1119-1135
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Web page: http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/
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Web: http://mitpress.mit.edu/journal-home.tcl?issn=00335533
Related research
Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Charles I. Jones & John C. Williams, . "Measuring the Social Return to R&D," Working Papers 97002, Stanford University, Department of Economics.
- Charles I. Jones & John C. Williams, 1997. "Measuring the social return to R&D," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1997-12, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
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