Measuring the Benefits of Social Science Research
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IMPACT ASSESSMENT DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 2
MEASURING THE BENEFITS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
Vincent H. Smith
Director General's Office
International Food Policy Research Institute 2033 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006 Tel: (202)862-5600 Fax: (202)467-4439
Email: IFPRI@
July 1998
Discussion Papers contain preliminary material and research results, and are circulated prior to a full peer review in order to stimulate discussion and critical comment. It is expected that most Discussion Papers will eventually be published in some other form, and that their content may also be revised.
Little is known about the impact of social science research in general, and food policy research, in particular. In order to expand the scope of available academic research and to develop quantitative methods for estimating the impact of IFPRI's work, several papers were commissioned from social scientists. Furthermore, IFPRI held an essay contest to solicit research from a broader range of scientists. The resulting papers were discussed at a two-day symposium organized by IFPRI in 1997. This Discussion Paper is a revised version of a paper prepared for and discussed at the symposium. Other papers will be published in this Discussion Paper series over the next months.
CONTENTS
Page
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. A Preliminary: Measuring Basic and Applied Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. The Benefits of Social Science Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Separate Effects of Social Science Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Households . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Government Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Joint Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4. Measuring the Benefits of Social Science Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Conventional Approaches to Estimating the Productivity Effects of Research: Relevance for the Social Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Case Study Alternative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
i
ABSTRACT This paper addresses two questions. The first is "What are the benefits of social science research?"; the second is "How should they be measured?" The response to the first is that, as with research in the physical sciences, the benefits should be identified in terms of changes in economic surplus for different groups. It may be useful to use a framework that considers the incidence of the effects of social science research on firms, households, and government agencies. The response to the second question is that estimating returns to social science research using conventional econometric techniques may be particularly difficult. Instead, it may be necessary to resort to a case study approach, but care must be taken to ensure that the cases selected for study are genuinely representative.
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