PUBLIC R&D INVESTMENT FROM PRIVATE AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE. AN APPLICATION TO ITALIAN AGRICULTURE, 1960-1995

Roberto Esposti and Pierpaolo Pierani

No 25876, 2003 Annual Meeting, August 16-22, 2003, Durban, South Africa from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: Public R&D stock is considered as quasi-fixed input in a variable cost function. Its shadow price allows to measure the long run optimal level thus explicitly assessing the hypothesis of under (over) investment. Two alternative R&D prices are defined depending on whether the social or private (farmers) view prevails. The results under these alternatives provide evidence on the hypothesis that free-riding on public R&D explain overinvestment. The application to the Italian agriculture (1960-1995) suggests overinvestment in public research since the late seventies with a significant difference between the social and private optimal R&D, the former being much closer to the observed level.

Keywords: Research; and; Development/Tech; Change/Emerging; Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20
Date: 2003
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae03:25876

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.25876

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