Quotulatiousness

December 2, 2018

QotD: There’s investment and then there’s “public investment”

Filed under: Government, Quotations, Science, Technology — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 01:00

In 2003, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development published a paper on the ‘sources of economic growth in OECD countries’ between 1971 and 1998 and found, to its surprise, that whereas privately funded research and development stimulated economic growth, publicly funded research had no economic impact whatsoever. None. This earthshaking result has never been challenged or debunked. It is so inconvenient to the argument that science needs public funding that it is ignored.

Matt Ridley, “The Myth of Basic Science: Does scientific research drive innovation? Not very often, argues Matt Ridley: Technological evolution has a momentum of its own, and it has little to do with the abstractions of the lab”, Wall Street Journal, 2015-10-23.

Related posts:

  1. Is “innovation” today’s buzzword equivalent of “excellence”
  2. Another example of public funding misdirected
  3. Senator Elizabeth Warren doesn’t really understand what “public goods” are
  4. QotD: Warriors and (mere) merchants
  5. QotD: Science on the brink

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