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Wed, Jul 09
Why countries need to invest more in research
Research and innovation create wealth over the long run. They allow humans to turn sand into silicon microchips and mould into antibiotics. In the 1990s, Clinton-era economic expansion was accompanied by a doubling in the budget for the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). This increase was motivated by evidence that investment into biomedical research creates knowledge, good ideas and smart people that improve healthcare practice and enrich the economy.
However, a variety of governance problems in the Bush-Obama era have resulted in a marked real-dollar decline in biomedical funding.