Persistence pays: U.S. agricultural productivity growth and the benefits from public R&D spending

This book documents the evolving path of U.S. agriculture in the 20th Centuryand 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 econometricevidence linking state-specific agricultural productivity measures to federaland state government investments in agricultural research and extension. The results show that the time lags between R&D spending and its effects on productivity are longer than commonly found or assumed in the prior published work. Also, the spillover effects of R&D 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 frompast 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 R&D 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. " "Contains an empirical assessment of the long-run investments in and payoffs to agricultural R&D in the United States, which will be of broader international as well as U.S. interest Includes substantial improvements in data, understanding, methods, and new and interesting empirical results Provides comprehensive treatment of issues and prior literature and persuasive results written by leaders in the field Very timely given the policy, professional, and media attention of late on the 'food crisis,' growing concerns about an agricultural productivity slowdown and the significant policy flux in Washington DC associated with 2007 Farm Bill INDICE: Introduction.- The Changing Structure of U.S. Agriculture.- Agricultural Inputs.- Agriculture Outputs.- Agricultural Productivity Patterns.- Agricultural R&D.- Agricultural R&D and Technology Spillovers.- Models ofResearch and Productivity.- Econometric Estimation and Results.- Past and Prospective Productivity Patterns and Research Benefits.- Interpretation and Assessment of Benefit-Cost Findings.- Synthesis.

• ISBN: 978-1-4419-0657-1
• Editorial: Springer
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 504
• Fecha Publicación: 01/01/2010
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés