tailieunhanh - Measuring the Impacts of Fedral Investments in Research by Steve Olson and Stephen Merrill2

6IMPACTS OF RESEARCH ON THE AND CAREER DEVELOPMENTSeveral speakers during the workshop contended that the influence of research is the training it provides , graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows, who those experiences and skills into the workplace. Three speakers workshop looked specifically at that assertion. Economic reveal the value of these workers to the economy, while can uncover the preferences and goals of workers and employersHowever, many questions still surround the processes through and demand interactR AND D SPENDING AND THE R AND D the short term, the relationship between R and D and is relatively weak, said Anthony Carnevale, Director of University Center on Education and the Workforce. But longer term, the relationship can be much strongerExplaining the explain economic growth and productivity increases by citing the development of human capital and investments infrastructure. But those two factors explain only part of of the economy. The residual— “between 65 and 40 percent,.depending on who you read,” Carnevale said— comes from advances economists think of these advances in knowledge as in technologies, but in fact the residual consists of THE IMPACTS OF FEDERAL INVESTMENTS IN RESEARCHthat cannot be measured as a direct investment in the economyCarnevale said that he preferred to think of advances in knowledge as people combine and use resources, whether human, technological,.or otherwise. So advances in knowledge include the development as opposed to mom and pop hardware stores, not just the of technologyR and D Spending and Economic federal spending on R and D to these advances is a difficult problem. For example, R and D directly fairly limited number of people. About million . workers least 10 percent of their time doing R and D, out of a total about 150 million people. (The former number includes , although the Center on Education and the Workforce not include social scientists among workers in science, technology,.engineering, and mathematics, or STEM.) The relatively small size of workforce explains why federal investments in research small short-term impacts on employmentThe STEM workforce engages in both research, which as scientific investigations— and development — or of scientific knowledge. While research has sometimes to technologies that are economically important, development much more important source of innovations, according to Carnevale“Historically, science owes a whole lot more to the invention of engine than the steam engine ever owed to science. That is, the development of economies occurs in application, not in labs.” argument also can be made, he said, that the economic value has been growing more rapidly than the from research. “A lot of wealth creation in the world to do with process improvements, not so much invention.” Even such as pharmaceuticals, where discoveries lead to , the commercialization and distribution networks bring in the new revenueThe Growth of the STEM STEM workforce, which is larger than the number of R and D, is growing, said Carnevale. Today, people who work , technology, engineering, or mathematics— not counting OF RESEARCH ON THE LABOR MARKET AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT 51scientists—represent 5 percent of the workforce, and this percentage STEM workforce represents the endpoint o