Research and development can have enormous spillovers for the rest of society. When businesses just make products and sell them, they capture a solid share of the value, or surplus,...
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Research and development can have enormous spillovers for the rest of society. When businesses just make products and sell them, they capture a solid share of the value, or surplus, created for the world. By contrast, a famous study estimates that in the long run, 98% of the value of a new innovation goes to society at large, and just 2% goes to those who made the key contributions to its invention.
