2 For a review of the literature, see M. Ishaq Nadiri, Innovations and Technological Spillovers, NBER
Working Paper No. 4423, August 1993. Another literature review of about the same time shows an average
social rate of return of about 90 percent. See Frank Lichtenberg, R&D Investment and International
Productivity Differences, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 4161, September
1992. Returns vary considerably by industry. Dozens of studies over 30-odd years through 1990 show
social returns on the government's investment in agricultural R&D averaging 35 to 50 percent, with a
substantial number showing returns of 50 to more than 100 percent. Landmark studies led by Mansfield
and Tewkesbury of a heterogeneous sample of private-sector investments in both product and process
innovation showed high social returns (private benefits to the investing firm, profits to imitators, and
benefits to buyers) -- 56 and 99 percent respectively (both figures are medians). See Edwin Mansfield,
"Social and Private Rates of Return from Industrial Innovations," Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 91, 1977; J. Tewkesbury,
M. Crandall, and W. Crane, "Measuring the Societal Benefits of Innovation," Science, vol. 209,
August 1980, pp. 658-662.
Civilian Industrial Technology - Table of Contents
Strategic Planning Document - Civilian Industrial Technology
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