Science versus Profit in Research

Abstract

This paper deals with Science and Technology in research policy. Following recent literature on the economics of knowledge, Science and Technology are defined as distinct institutional arrangements, broadly corresponding to nonmarket and market allocation mechanisms. Previous analyses argued that Science and Technology can and should coexist within an economic system or society. This paper shows that Science and Technology tend to coexist—and should coexist on welfare grounds—also within the same research field, and even when researchers are perfectly identical. Our analysis was inspired by the race to sequence the human genome, but the proposed theoretical framework can also be used to assess the recent evolution of other research fields, e.g., research on GMOs. The paper also provides guidelines for policies designed to achieve the optimal size of public research within a given research field.

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