The retreat of public research and its adverse consequences on innovation

Abstract

Does it matter whether research is conducted by the private business rather than in universities or government research centres? While most of the attention of science and innovation policy in the last decades has explored the relevance of the interconnections between public and business players in enhancing knowledge-based societies, a major trend has been ignored: both the quota of public R&D and its share over the total R&D investment has shrunk in most OECD countries. As a result, a larger fraction of knowledge is today generated in the private sector. We argue that this is a major problem since public research and private research differ along a number of characteristics, e.g. public access, potential for future technological innovations, criteria of resource allocation. This trend can have adverse implications for long-term innovation and economic welfare in our societies. Through the lens of the public goods theory and of the sector of funding and execution of R&D for the period 1981-2012 we try to explain why.

University–industry linkages and academic engagements: individual behaviours and firms’ barriers. Introduction to the special section

“…It is widely recognized that universities and other public research institutions play a central role within systems of innovation for basic research generation, technology transfer and knowledge diffusion to firms (Archibugi and Filippetti 2017;Bercovitz and Feldman 2006;Hall et al 2000;Mowery and Sampat 2005;Mowery and Shane 2002;Thursby and Thursby 2011). These processes are ensured by university-industry (UI) interactions, in their various modes (i.e.…”

R&D in Europe: Sector Decomposition of Sources of (in)Efficiency

“…This is due to preserving the industrial base in Europe and its competitiveness with private R&D, and the spillovers of private R&Ds to higher education and greater adoption of new technologies [25]. Other studies [26,27] emphasize three reasons why measuring the progress of innovation should be important. First, theoretical analysis and development of innovation theories require innovation assessment.…”

Japan’s Productivity and GDP Growth: The Role of Private, Public and Foreign R&D 1967–2017

“…Second, the analysis is ex-post, whereas decisions are taken under uncertainty and risk; implicit risk premia may be high here. Third, a log-log specification as used here has decreasing marginal products in case of positive coefficients; by implication, rates of return may be higher if less is done in terms of inputs as indicated by the relatively stronger expansion of private compared to public R&D in Japan as documented by Archibugi and Filippetti (2018). 16 Fourth, policies affect international R&D, which generates spillover repercussions (knowledge externalities or complementary strategic reactions) to the economy under consideration, which are predominantly positive.…”

“…Japan's ratio of public to private R&D stocks has fallen slightly from 0.97 in 1963-1981 to 0.91 in 2017. Archibugi and Filippetti (2018) have criticized similar trends away from public to relatively more private financing and performance of R&D in the corresponding flow data for G7 countries. For the case of Japan the question is whether growth rates should be more in proportion for public and private R&D, requiring a policy revision.…”