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The rate of return to investment in R&D: The case of research infrastructures

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  • Del Bo, Chiara F.

Abstract

The return to R&D investment and activities has been the object of a vast literature, both from a theoretical and empirical perspective. The aim of this overview is to present a selection of contributions to underscore the main shared findings and highlight open issues, while also providing a preliminary analysis of the returns to R&D investment in large research infrastructures (RIs) in Europe. First, a common methodological framework is distilled from the macro-literature, examining the return to R&D in aggregate terms. Then, the evaluation in the context of specific projects, mainly in large RIs, is examined, followed by the explicit consideration of externalities and spillover effects of research activities. A novel empirical analysis of European RIs is also presented, based on a novel data set, to highlight trends and suggest new avenues for the evaluation of the rate of return to investments in research infrastructures, using both a cost effectiveness ratio and a bibliometric citation count as metrics to evaluate the return to R&D investment in these facilities. Directions for future research are sketched in the concluding section.

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  • Del Bo, Chiara F., 2016. "The rate of return to investment in R&D: The case of research infrastructures," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 26-37.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:112:y:2016:i:c:p:26-37
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2016.02.018
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    2. Wenchao Xu & Yanmei Xu & Junfeng Li, 2017. "A Study of RI Clusters Based on Symbiosis Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-13, March.
    3. Wu, Yunna & Yong, Xingkai & Tao, Yao & Zhou, Jianli & He, Jiaming & Chen, Wenjun & Yang, Yingying, 2023. "Investment monitoring key points identification model of big science research infrastructures -- Fuzzy BWM-entropy-PROMETHEE Ⅱ method," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Pan, Xiongfeng & Guo, Shucen & Li, Mengna & Song, Jinbo, 2021. "The effect of technology infrastructure investment on technological innovation ——A study based on spatial durbin model," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Return to R&D; Cost benefit analysis; Spillovers; Cost effectiveness ratio; Citation analysis; Research infrastructures;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities

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