The economics of research and development. With Heidi Williams

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• 00:01

  Public funding for R and D. It sounds good in theory, but what about in practice?

• 00:06

  What if it means government waste as money is spent on research?

• 00:09

  That would have happened anyway.

• 00:11

  Or what if it funds pointless chin stroking with no practical effect?

• 00:15

  Or what if the way we treat R and D spending is all wrong?

• 00:19

  Support for R and D really does do good and we should fund much more of it.

• 00:24

  This week we are going to ask what we know about spending on innovation.

• 00:40

  This is the Economics show with Sumaya Keynes.

• 00:43

  This week I'm joined by Heidi Williams,

• 00:45

  a professor of economics at Dartmouth College who is an expert on innovation policy.

• 00:50

  She's also a visiting fellow at the Congressional Budget Office.

• 00:53

  She has also co written a new paper about the effects of of R and D. And so is the perfect guest.

• 00:59

  Heidi, hello.

• 01:00

  Thanks very much for having me.

• 01:02

  And let me just give the standard disclaimer that of course I'm talking about my paper and my personal capacity and not representing the views of the Congressional Budget Office,

• 01:10

  of course.

• 01:11

  Okay, first question, it's going to be a silly question.

• 01:14

  I want you to imagine a scale from 1 to 10, right?

• 01:18

  Where 1 is the worst possible thing that the government could fund, right?

• 01:23

  Like free T shirts for everyone, not a good idea.

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