Reddit mentions of Technology, R&D, and the Economy

This is something I originally learned in undergraduate economics classes. I hope they still teach it and, if so, it would probably be introduced in most online courses on modern economics at some point. Unfortunately, my primary reference since then was a Berkeley undergraduate course that was turned over to iTunes a couple years ago (which I refuse to use or endorse), so I can't reference the more comprehensive and professional history of the studies that lead to such conclusions.

In brief from what I recall, econometric studies by folks like Mansfield (Mansfield, E. et al., 1991. Academic research and industrial innovation. Research Policy 20, 1–12.
Mansfield, E., 1998. Academic research and industrial innovation: an update of empirical findings. Research Policy 26, 773–776. Mansfield, E., Lee, J.Y., 1996. The modern university: contributor to industrial innovation and recipient of industrial R&D support. Research Policy 25, 1047–1058.) have tried to put a quantitative number on the exact rate of return for public investment in basic research and pegged it around 28%, suggesting that it is underfunded in most modern economies despite outperforming general private R&D investment over time. However, these kinds of studies have been widely considered as much too limited in their scope, with many authors suggesting that they neglect less quantifiable benefits such as trained researchers, improved instrumentation and methodologies, the development of a tacit knowledge, and fostering of national and international networks. This suggests that the social rate of return for public investment is probably much higher than the capital rate of return, but also that it is inextricably complicated thus nearly to impossible to accurately tease out. The best summary and jumping point I have at the moment at the moment is on page 159 of Technology, R&D, and the Economy, the conclusion to Chapter 6 by Bronwyn Hall, which can be found on page 20 of this pdf as it outlines and compared the private rate of return to that of public investment by multiple proposed metrics. I hope that helps.