Assessing Rates of Return to Public and Private Agricultural Research

Previous work on the rate of return to public agricultural research for the United States has neglected private agricultural research expenditures. This study, which factors in production variables like weather and the shifting health of national economy over a 70-year period (1915-85), does include private research. When private research is omitted, the rate of return to public research rises by almost 20 percent. This finding supports the extension of Federal and State funding for agricultural research, especially if it can be coordinated with effrots in the private sector.