Evaluating Cost and Output Levels for Agricultural Utilization Research

Public expenditures for research and research output from an administrative standpoint. development have increased very rapidly in the last Historical estimates of intermediate output for the two decades. Despite the apparent high payoff from agricultural utilization research program of the U.S. this research, there is an increasingly greater Department of Agriculture are presented along with reluctance on the part of legislative groups and the related costs and performance levels for this program. general public to support such research. This problem The objective is to provide a framework for making revolves around the question of social priorities, but administrative judgments about the past performance it also involves an assessment of the value of the of the program with primary emphasis on the research investment. knowledge output of the program and how it is There are a number of ways to evaluate research disseminated rather than an assessment of the social investment. From the standpoint of society as a or economic benefits of specific discoveries' or whole, scientific research can contribute to our innovations. standard of living in three ways: (1) by providing knowledge about the world and how it works on a PROGRAM EXPENDITURES AND COSTS systematic basis, (2) by providing a group of highly trained specialists who can be very useful in solving a The agricultural utilization research program at wide variety of problems, and (3) by creating a the federal level was established in 1939. It is an knowledge bank which is a source of ideas and organized effort through science and technology to devices that ultimately lead to technological change create new and improved products and processes for and innovations. agricultural commodities.' The research is conducted Previous attempts to evaluate research output in five regional laboratories with commodity or have been concerned with estimating the economic functional specialization related to commodities most value of innovations produced from a research prevalent in these regions. Primary emphasis is on program by comparing changes in consumer surplus basic research related to the chemical, physical, and to research costs, i.e., with emphasis on the final or biological properties of farm products. However, end product of the research investment [1, 2, 3, 5, applied and developmental research is also conducted and 7]. This paper takes a somewhat different to help insure commercial development of research approach, however, by emphasizing evaluation of findings that appear most feasible for practical intermediate levels of output for a research program application. as a whole rather than specific innovations. Major costs of the program include expenditures Intermediate output indicators will not necessarily for physical facilities, scientific manpower, provide estimates of the final value of research, but supporting personnel, materials and supplies, and they can provide a more direct method of evaluating administrative overhead. Construction costs have