Abstract
A number of studies have attempted to determine the effect of US government expenditures on research and development (R&D) performed in industry on the quantity of private investment in R&D, by analysing the statistical relationship betweed federal and company R&D spending at the firm, industry, and aggregate levels(l). These studies are restricted to the US case owing to the lack of comparable data for other countries. The possibility that private decisions to invest in R&D may be influenced by federal industrial R&D spending is regarded as worthy of careful investigation, in part because numerous studies have demonstrated that private R&D expenditure has a significant, positive impact on total factor productivity (TFP). Although most analysts have failed to find evidence of a similar direct productivity impact of federal R&D expenditure(2), federal R&D may nevertheless have a considerable indirect impact (positive or negative) on TFP if it influences private R&D investment decisions.
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Lichtenberg, F.R. (1988). Assessing the Impact of Federal Industrial R&D Expenditure on Private R&D Activity in the United States. In: Gummett, P., Reppy, J. (eds) The Relations between Defence and Civil Technologies. NATO ASI Series, vol 46. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7803-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7803-5_5
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