The Costs and Benefits of Funding Military Research and Development Policy :: Papers

The Costs and Benefits of Funding Military enquiry and Development PolicyThe central issues when evaluating the everyplaceall the United States inquiry and cultivation insurance are the characteristics of a public skillful. A public good by definition is one that has a zero marginal comprise of providing the good an surplus person and from which individuals cannot be excluded. Research and knowledge policy contributes to the level of intimacy and technology of the entire country. Knowledge, is in most cases, a public good under the aforementioned definition. Giving knowledge to an additional individual does not take away from the total amount of knowledge available, and exclusion from knowledge is often difficult to maintain. A grocery hardship is often associated with public goods, and knowledge is not an exception. Regarding knowledge, and specifically research and development, the trade fails to leave this good at adequate levels. The government then steps in t o attempt to correct this failure through its research and development documentation policy. The following paper details the costs and benefits incurred through funding research and development specifically within the realm of national falsifying. subject defense is also a public good. The government provides national defense to correct the reality that if left uninfluenced, the market will not provide national defense at an adequate level. The U.S. government funds research and development in the area of defense at a overmuch greater level than any other.Background Major policy initiatives were undertaken during the Reagan and scouring administrations in order to research and develop technologies that would aid in the ice-cold War. This was the era of Reagans arms stockpiling that pushed the defense budget to almost three times the amount it is today, maxing out at just over $800 billion. (Stiglitz, 332) Policymakers were concerned with creating weapons and technology th at were more sophisticated than those of the Soviet Union. schedules such as the semiconductor research consortium, SEMATECH, the Defense departments Technology Reinvestment Program (TRP) and the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) grew out of these years all of which took favor of defense funding to establish dual-use technologies, that is technologies with specific uses to both the civilian market and the military. In 1986, the Federal Technology Transfer Act was established to lease federal laboratories to conduct cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) with private firms. The Reagan and bush-league era policies supported high technology research and development that cerebrate to both the civilian market and to the military.