Military R&D: the productivity puzzle

Vernon Ruttan

No 7379, Staff Papers from University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics

Abstract: A number of very careful econometric studies have been interpreted as showing that publicly funded research and development conducted by private firms has had little discernable impact on firm level profits or productivity. In contrast historical studies have shown that military and defense-related research development and procurement conducted by private firms has been an important source of technology development across a broad spectrum of U.S. manufacturing industries. Careful narrative analysis represents a more effective way of capturing the complementarities between military and defense-related research, development, and procurement on commercial technology development than econometric analysis.

Keywords: Political Economy; Productivity Analysis; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 10
Date: 2007
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~ and nep-tid
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:umaesp:7379

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.7379

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