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经济上的分析有助于我们理解科学的迅猛发展的经济因素,同时有助于我们理解为什么必须继续向科学研究提供公共资金。但是,所谓“市场失利”的看法日益占了上风,从而使决策者们在进行分析时忽视了两个重要问题:科学是怎样为技术作出贡献的?科学所产生的技术效益是否越来越具有国际化的特点? 关于前一个问题,现在的情况是人们对那些能够产生有直接技术用途的知识的科学领域投入了过多的注意,而对于那些能为绝大多数技术作出贡献的科学领域则注意得太少,但实际上前一类科学领域的范围相对来说是比较狭窄的,而后一类科学领域的范围则要宽广得多。关于后一个问题,实际情况是,尽管存在跨国大公司的技术活动,在大多数主要国家中科学系统和技术系统仍是紧密结合的。对基础研究的集中、规模和效率有必要进行经验研究,在这方面,工业研究开发的应用经济学能够提供十分有用的分析方法和认识。迄今为止尚无任何令人信服的证据表明基础研究中存在还没有发挥的规模经济。这些证据显示,许多提倡加强基础研究的针对性和集中性的政策是很成问题的。经济学家和其他社会科学家应该为政府资助基础研究的必要性提出更加有说服力的理由,并且对科学与技术的本性问题题作出更为现实的论断。
Economic analysis helps us understand the economic aspects of the rapid development of science and at the same time helps us to understand why we must continue to provide public funding for scientific research. However, the perception of “market failure” is gaining the upper hand day by day, leaving policymakers to ignore two important questions in their analysis: How science contributes to technology, and is the technological benefits of science increasingly available On the previous issue, what is happening now is that people are paying too much attention to those areas of science that generate knowledge of direct technical uses, and to science that can contribute to the vast majority of technologies Too little attention, but in fact the scope of the former scientific field is relatively narrow, while the scope of the latter category of science is much broader. On the latter issue, the reality is that, despite the technical activities of large multinational corporations, the scientific and technological systems are still closely integrated in most major countries. Empirical studies of the concentration, size and efficiency of basic research are necessary, and applied economics in industrial research and development can provide very useful analytical methods and insights in this regard. To date, there is no convincing evidence that there are economies of scale yet to be played in basic research. The evidence shows that many targeted and focused policies that promote the strengthening of basic research are problematic. Economists and other social scientists should come up with more convincing reasons for the need for government funding of basic research and make a more realistic statement about the nature of science and technology.