Jd. Mullen et Tl. Cox, THE RETURNS FROM RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIAN BROADACRE AGRICULTURE, Australian journal of agricultural economics, 39(2), 1995, pp. 105-128
Many people share the view that too little is invested in R & D in agr
iculture. The relationship between several measures of productivity an
d research expenditure was estimated using data from ABARE's surveys o
f broadacre industries and a new data series on R & D expenditure for
the period 1953 to 1988. The internal rate of return to research was e
stimated to be in the range of 15 to 40 percent which does not provide
strong evidence that Australia is either under- or over-investing in
public research.