A student sends me this link from the BEA discussing how much measured investment (and therefore GDP) would increase if R&D spending was counted as investment.
The only other place in the blogosphere where I see this linked is The Intangible Economy... which I think I had stumbled across once before and looks quite interesting.
So, should R&D count in GDP (as investment)? Why or why not?
The only other place in the blogosphere where I see this linked is The Intangible Economy... which I think I had stumbled across once before and looks quite interesting.
So, should R&D count in GDP (as investment)? Why or why not?
It depends. How is the obsolescence and depreciation of the capital stock created by previous R&D investments handled in the GDP arithmetic?
I'm not sure, but at the bottom of the page they say:
"More detailed information about the 2010 R&D Satellite Account will be available in an article in the Survey of Current Business later this year. The article will describe the satellite account in more detail and will include statistics for R&D-intensive industries for 1987-2007, as well as statistics for the regional and international accounts."
Perhaps that forthcoming article will answer that question.