A structural equation model to assess the impact of agricultural research expenditure on multiple dimensions

Quality & Quantity volume 53, pages2063–2080(2019)Cite this article

Abstract

The economic crisis and the pressure towards efficient and effective use of public money claim for a higher accountability of research expenditure, as well as for a greater proximity of research to the needs of community. While agricultural productivity represents a worldwide goal for agricultural research as a response to growing food, feed and energy demands, other objectives besides productivity are becoming central. The challenge is to take into account broader impacts that go beyond academic and economic ones, and to improve knowledge on the causal impact-generating mechanisms. In this paper, we adopt a causal perspective and estimate the impact of agricultural research expenditure on multiple dimensions. We develop a structural equation model relating research expenditure, research activity, productivity and multiple impact indicators within a dynamic impact pathway, accounting for existing domain knowledge on causal relationships and their lag structures. The model is applied on EU 15 countries over the period 1980–2014, making use of official statistics from several European databases.

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Fig. 1
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Notes

  1. 1.

    The true expected growth rate for the response variable due to 1% increase in the value of a covariate with coefficient \(\kappa\) is equal to \(1.01^\kappa\), which corresponds to a percentage increase equal to \((1.01^\kappa -1)\cdot 100\). This approximation \((1.01^\kappa -1)\cdot 100 \approx \kappa\) is reasonable for \(|\kappa |<10\).

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Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant agreement No. 609448 (IMPRESA project, http://www.impresa-project.eu).

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Statistics, Computer Science, Applications, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Alessandro Magrini

  2. Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Fabio Bartolini

  3. Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Alessandra Coli

  4. Department of Political Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Barbara Pacini

Authors
  1. Alessandro Magrini
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  2. Fabio Bartolini
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  3. Alessandra Coli
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  4. Barbara Pacini
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Correspondence to Alessandro Magrini.

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Magrini, A., Bartolini, F., Coli, A. et al. A structural equation model to assess the impact of agricultural research expenditure on multiple dimensions. Qual Quant 53, 2063–2080 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-019-00855-z

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Keywords

  • Directed acyclic graph
  • Dynamic causal effects
  • Polynomial lag shape
  • Research impact assessment
  • Productivity
  • Sustainable development