Name: The economic laws of scientific research
ISBN: 9780333560457

The economic laws of scientific research

During the 1980s Terence Kealey was universally derided for his claims that British and American science were expanding fast. Everyone else thought that they were in decline. He has been vindicated, but he had an unfair advantage; he knew the economic laws of scientific research and his critics did not. This book now makes them available to all. If state-funded research promotes economic, cultural or even scientific growth, why do Japan and Switzerland flourish in its near-absence while Russia and India have stagnated in a sea of government largesse? Why has Britain's relative economic decline, and that of America, coincided with their government's funding of research? Assessing the evidence from international comparisons and historical research, Terence Kealey shows how the free market approach has proved by far the most successful in promoting science, innovation, wealth and happiness.

What Hacker News says

NessussOct 2017

I'm shocked there has been no mention of The Economic Laws of Scientific Research. Terence Kealey makes a compelling argument that government funding more than crowds out private funding for Science.

I.e., we are worse off in terms of absolute contributions to Science because 'everyone' expects government to fund it - especially basic research surely has no profit motive so only public funding can possibly work. Completely wrong historically.

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MichaelAOSep 2013

The premise of this article seems to be that since the government funding of scientific research has bore fruits, then it must be justified. The ole saying "a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while" comes to mind. It's worth entertaining the idea that public funding displaces private funding (at a net loss). Burt Rutan makes this argument in his Ted talk on the space industry (http://www.ted.com/talks/burt_rutan_sees_the_future_of_space...).

In college I came across "The Economic Laws of Scientific Research" by Terence Kealey. It's a great read for anyone interested.

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otherme123Mar 2026

As if "A" or "C" defined a person capacity. I know some straight A's that went directly for a repetitive and boring but well paid and stable job. Other stayed in academia and turned top scientists.

Academia is a very particular dynamic very difficult to find elsewhere, and some people dig it. You can watch some people finding the same dynamic at Google for example, where they are allowed and encouraged to fiddle around and keep publishing (e.g. the Attention paper, why would Google allow such publication?). Such dynamics are explored in Terence Kealy book "The economic laws of scientific research".

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