In: Natural Resource Management and Policy, 34 v.No. 34
This book documents the evolving path of U.S. agriculture in the 20th Century and the role of public RD in that evolution. The work begins with a detailed quantitative assessment of the shifting patterns of production among the states and over time and of the public institutions and investments in agricultural RD. Then, based on newly constructed sets of panel data, some of which span the entire 20th Century and more, the authors present new econometric evidence linking state-specific agricultural productivity measures to federal and state government investments in agricultural research and extension. The results show that the time lags between RD spending and its effects on productivity are longer than commonly found or assumed in the prior published work. Also, the spillover effects of RD among states are important, such that the national net benefits from a state`s agricultural research investments are much greater than own-state net benefits. The main findings are consistent across a wide range of reasonable model specifications. In sum, the benefits from past public investments in agricultural research have been worth many times more than the costs, a significant share of the benefits accrue as spillovers, and the research lags are very long. An accelerated investment in public agricultural RD is warranted by the high returns to the nation, and may be necessary to revitalize U.S. agricultural productivity growth even though the benefits may not be visible for many years. TOC:Introduction.- The Changing Structure of U.S. Agriculture.- Agricultural Inputs.- Agriculture Outputs.- Agricultural Productivity Patterns.- Agricultural RD.- Agricultural RD and Technology Spillovers.- Models of Research and Productivity.- Econometric Estimation and Results.- Past and Prospective Productivity Patterns and Research Benefits.- Interpretation and Assessment of Benefit-Cost Findings.- Synthesis.
In: Natural Resource Management and Policy 34
In: Natural resource management and policy [34]
In: Natural Resource Management and Policy, 34 v.No. 34
This book documents the evolving path of U.S. agriculture in the 20th Century and the role of public R&D in that evolution. The work begins with a detailed quantitative assessment of the shifting patterns of production among the states and over time and of the public institutions and investments in agricultural R&D. Then, based on newly constructed sets of panel data, some of which span the entire 20th Century and more, the authors present new econometric evidence linking state-specific agricultural productivity measures to federal and state government investments in agricultural research and
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