Towards the measurement of the impacts of improving research capacity: an economic evaluation of training in wheat disease resistance *

It is notoriously difficult to assess the economic value of research aimed at improving research capacity, particularly for the human capital component of research capacity. In this paper, a framework is developed and an analysis is undertaken of the value of training for scientists in wheat rust resistance. The value of improving human capital is assessed through a framework based on marginal analysis of the improvement in productivity outcomes flowing from the increased capacity. On that basis, the value of programs to build human capacity through training or further education can be estimated. Although such estimates are necessarily qualified, they provide a basis for quantifying the value of building research and development capacity. Copyright Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. and Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ Interim Recommendation for Use of Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine — United States, February 2021

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Correlation versus causation and the apparent external benefits of education

There is a widely reported positive correlation between education and the amount of volunteer time given. Many researchers assume this is a causal relationship, so increased volunteer work has been added to the list of 'external benefits' of education. These 'external benefits' make public subsidies to higher education seem more justifiable. This study uses data from a specially collected sample of New Zealand identical twins to test the relationship between education and volunteer labour supply, holding unobservable family effects constant. Multiple measurements of education levels were also collected so that any bias in the results due to measurement errors could be corrected. The results show that once family unobservables are controlled for, extra education significantly reduces the amount of volunteer time donated. This reversal in the results is a reminder of the lesson that correlation does not imply causation.

Productivity growth and the returns from public investment in R&D in Australian broadacre agriculture

Investment in R&D has long been regarded as an important source of productivity growth in Australian agriculture. Perhaps because research lags are long, current investment in R&D is monitored closely. Investment in R&D has been flat while productivity growth has remained strong, relative both to other sectors of the Australian economy and to the agricultural sectors of other countries. Such productivity growth, at a time when the decline in terms of trade facing Australian farmers has slowed, may have enhanced the competitiveness of Australian agriculture. The econometric results presented here suggest no evidence of a decline in the returns from research from the 15 to 40�per cent per annum range estimated by Mullen and Cox. In fact the marginal impact of research increases with research over the range of investment levels experienced from 1953 to 2000, a finding which lends support to the view that there is underinvestment in agricultural research. These results were obtained from econometric models which maintain strong assumptions about how investments in research and extension translate into changes in TFP. Hence some caution in interpreting the results is warranted. Copyright 2007 The Author Journal compilation 2007 Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc .