A Skeptical View of the National Science Foundation's Role in Economic Research

We can imagine a plausible case for government support of science based on traditional economic reasons of externalities and public goods. Yet when it comes to government support of grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for economic research, our sense is that many economists avoid critical questions, skimp on analysis, and move straight to advocacy. In this essay, we take a more skeptical attitude toward the efforts of the NSF to subsidize economic research. We offer two main sets of arguments. First, a key question is not whether NSF funding is justified relative to laissez-faire, but rather, what is the marginal value of NSF funding given already existing government and nongovernment support for economic research? Second, we consider whether NSF funding might more productively be shifted in various directions that remain within the legal and traditional purview of the NSF. Such alternative focuses might include data availability, prizes rather than grants, broader dissemination of economic insights, and more. Given these critiques, we suggest some possible ways in which the pattern of NSF funding, and the arguments for such funding, might be improved.

Download Full-text

US Technology and Economic Development Strategies

Industry and Higher Education ◽

10.1177/095042229100500105 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 22-29

Author(s):

Theodore J. Maher

Keyword(s):

National Science Foundation ◽

State Level ◽

Government Support ◽

Science Parks ◽

Business Innovation ◽

Innovation Research ◽

Centre Of Excellence ◽

National Science ◽

Us Government ◽

Economic Development Strategies

The article points out that prior to 1980 most US government support of science and technology projects was carried out at the federal level. However, during the 1980s initiatives have come increasingly from the state level. Selected federal and national schemes are described, including the NIST, the National Science Foundation and the Small Business Innovation Research Program. Various state level activities are then outlined, attention being paid to incubators and science parks, seed capital programmes and centre of excellence programmes.

Download Full-text

Introduction of Jane Sell, Cooley-Mead 2017

Social Psychology Quarterly ◽

10.1177/0190272518755342 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 81 (1) ◽

pp. 4-7

Author(s):

Murray Webster

Keyword(s):

Social Psychology ◽

Public Goods ◽

Doctoral Students ◽

National Science Foundation ◽

American Sociological Association ◽

Experimental Methods ◽

Theory Building ◽

National Science ◽

Patient Guidance

Jane Sell’s contributions to social psychology include guides to theory building, experimental methods, public goods, prosocial interaction, gender, race, and status processes. She serves on committees and panels at the American Sociological Association (ASA), the ASA Social Psychology Section, and the National Science Foundation. Her doctoral students attest to her wise and patient guidance, and she continues to enrich social psychology through her research, her service, and her many students.

Download Full-text

Network-Mediated Knowledge Spillovers in ICT/Information Security

Review of Network Economics ◽

10.1515/rne-2020-0034 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Neil Gandal ◽

Nadav Kunievsky ◽

Lee Branstetter

Keyword(s):

Information Security ◽

National Science Foundation ◽

Knowledge Spillovers ◽

Economic Research ◽

Collaboration Networks ◽

Excellent Research ◽

National Science ◽

Hebrew University ◽

The Impact

AbstractA large literature has used patent data to measure knowledge spillovers across inventions but few papers have explicitly measured the impact of the collaboration networks formed by inventors on the quality of invention. This paper develops a method to measure the impact of collaboration networks of inventors on invention quality. We apply this methodology to the information and communication technology (ICT) and information security sectors in Israel and find that the quality of Israeli inventions are systematically linked to the structure of the collaborative network in these sectors. We are very grateful to the editor Lukasz Grzybowski and an anonymous referee for very helpful comments and suggestions that significantly improved the paper. We thank the Maurice Falk Institute for Economic Research in Israel, Start-Up Nation Central, the U. S. National Science Foundation (SciSIP grants 1360165 and 1360170), and Portugal’s Foundation for Science and Technology for financial support of this research. Lee Branstetter’s work on this project was supported by the National Science Foundation and we thank Britta Glennon for excellent research assistance. We are also grateful to Tim Bresnahan, Eugene Kandel, Imke Reimers, and seminar/conference participants at the 19th CEPR IO conference, the 10th Paris conference on Digital Economics, Collegio Carlo Alberto, Hebrew University, Stanford University, Tel Aviv University, ad UC-Berkeley and for helpful comments and suggestions. © 2020 by Neil Gandal, Nadav Kunievsky, and Lee Branstetter. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including the © notice, is given to the source.

Download Full-text