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Tax revenue accruing from the commercialization of research findings as an indicator for economic benefits of government financed research

Forster, Simon P. ; Seeger, Stefan

In: Research Evaluation, 2014, vol. 23, no. 3, p. 233-248

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    Title
    • Tax revenue accruing from the commercialization of research findings as an indicator for economic benefits of government financed research
    Author
    • Forster, Simon P.. Business Chemistry Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
    • Seeger, Stefan. Business Chemistry Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
    Document Type
    • Postprint
    Language
    • English
    Published in
    • Research Evaluation, 2014, vol. 23, no. 3, p. 233-248. Oxford University Press
    Other Version
    OAI-PMH Identifier
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:300718
    Summary
    In this article, we propose the use of tax payments accruing from the commercialization of research findings as a measure of research benefits complementing the existing range of evaluation tools. We place this novel approach to assess the economic returns to publicly funded research in the context of previous studies and highlight its advantages. The application of our method over a long period is demonstrated with the example of saccharin, which was discovered in the context of a curiosity-driven fundamental research project. In our study, we focused on Monsanto's commercial saccharin production finding notable returns