Abstract
Large scale scientific projects often require enormous investment on the part of their patrons to develop and maintain new technologies like particle accelerators and grid computing systems. Data suggest that funding for such research is increasingly concentrated into a small number of major grants awarded to just a handful of successful labs. But is this the most efficient market design for promoting discovery? In this chapter, I propose a modified solution to the monopsony profit maximisation problem that specifies the conditions under which patrons should invest in one or several labs for a given research project. I apply the model to two prominent case studies and identify the key indicators that policymakers should consider when deciding how best to fund new scientific research.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Caillaud, B., and B. Jullien. 2001. Competing cybermediaries. European Economic Review 45 (4–6): 797–808.
European Commision. 2015. The human brain project flagship: First technical project review. Retrieved 25 April, 2015 from: http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/1st-technical-review-human-brain-project-hbp-main-conclusions-recommendations
HBP-PS Consortium. 2012. The human brain project: A report to the European Commission. Retrieved 25 April, 2015 from: https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/documents/10180/17648/TheHBPReport_LR.pdf
Klemperer, P. 2008. Network effects and switching costs. In The new Palgrave dictionary of economics, ed. S.N. Durlauf and L.E. Blume, 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Naughton, J. 2000. A brief history of the future. London: Orion Books.
Press, L. 1996. Seeding networks: The federal role. Communications of the ACM 39 (10): 11–18.
Shapiro, C., and H. Varian. 1998. Information rules: A strategic guide to the network economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Varian, H. 2006. Intermediate microeconomics: A modern approach. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton.
Varian, H., J. Farrell, and C. Shapiro. 2004. The economics of information technology: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wu, T. 2010. The master switch. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Greg Taylor and Carl Öhman for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Watson, D. (2019). The Price of Discovery: A Model of Scientific Research Markets. In: Öhman, C., Watson, D. (eds) The 2018 Yearbook of the Digital Ethics Lab. Digital Ethics Lab Yearbook. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17152-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17152-0_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-17151-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-17152-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)