Abstract
Governments redirect R & D resources. Thegovernment supports R & D in technologies and in partsof the country that the private sector is unlikely tosupport, and the government provides funds forinexperienced businesses and for minority-ownedbusinesses when the private sector will not. Becausethe distribution of income and wealth is so unequal,our conventional methods of evaluating the socialusefulness of the redirection of the resources may notwork well. Redirection of R & D resources to meetSchumpeterian and Jeffersonian objectives may actuallybe efficient despite generating less economic surplusgiven the current distribution of income and wealth.
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Scott, J.T. The Directions for Technological Change: Alternative Economic Majorities and Opportunity Costs. Review of Industrial Organization 17, 1–16 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007875415472
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007875415472