TY - EJOUR AB - 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. AU - Mullen, John D. DA - 2007 DA - 2007 DO - 10.22004/ag.econ.118518 DO - doi EP - 384 EP - 359 ID - 118518 IS - 4 JF - Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics KW - Productivity Analysis KW - Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies KW - productivity KW - research and development KW - research evaluation L1 - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/118518/files/j.1467-8489.2007.00392.x.pdf L2 - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/118518/files/j.1467-8489.2007.00392.x.pdf L4 - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/118518/files/j.1467-8489.2007.00392.x.pdf LA - eng LA - English LK - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/118518/files/j.1467-8489.2007.00392.x.pdf N2 - 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. PY - 2007 PY - 2007 SP - 359 T1 - Productivity growth and the returns from public investment in R&D in Australian broadacre agriculture TI - Productivity growth and the returns from public investment in R&D in Australian broadacre agriculture UR - https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/118518/files/j.1467-8489.2007.00392.x.pdf VL - 51 Y1 - 2007 T2 - Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics ER -