AGRICULTURAL-RESEARCH EFFORT - CONCEPTUAL CLARITY AND MEASUREMENT

This paper emphasizes the need for basic conceptual clarity regarding the measures of research effort. In econometric analyses, this concept ual clarity could help reduce the misinterpretation of historical and institutional contexts underlying agricultural research effort. After a brief review of econometric studies estimating the returns to and de terminants of research, the centrality of the conceptual, contextual a nd causal significance of this measure is examined. Conceptualized and measured at the input frontier of the research process, an expenditur e measure of research reveals the institutional features and changes i n the research process in India over time. This basic understanding is essential to develop appropriate econometric specifications and corre spondingly effective research policy statements.