Congressional Briefing—The Decline in Research: Should We Worry?
Government data and research point to a long decline in US corporate investment in upstream research. At the same time, the ratio of federal government R&D spending to GDP is at its lowest level since the early 1950s. How pervasive are these trends across countries, fields, technologies, industries, and firms of different sizes? Are corporate trends explained by global competition, financial market pressures, or other factors? Are there reasons policymakers should be concerned? If so, what policy levers should they look to—government spending, intellectual property, tax, or antitrust enforcement?
Speakers included Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), Ashish Arora (Duke Fuqua School of Business), Steven Freilich (University of Delaware Energy Initiative), Stephen Merrill (Duke Law School), Arti Rai (Duke Law School), and Pian Shu (Harvard Business School).
This program was sponsored by a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Sponsored by the Center for Innovation Policy.