The international political economy of United States research and development policy

This research constructs a political economic model of federal government funding of private sector research and development (R&D). Specifically, this dissertation asks what accounts for changes in funding by the federal government and what accounts for how that money is distributed. In order to accomplish this, Neorealist explanations of R&D policy are compared to a domestic political economy model. The former argues international security competition motivates R&D funding. The latter explains changing patterns in R&D funding using electoral and business cycle variables as well as the international trade balances of the industries being funded. Two methodological approaches are used to investigate these issues. First, quantitative analysis uses OLS regression models to identify the political and economic determinants of US Government R&D spending. Second, a case study is conducted of the efforts to create a centralized R&D policy in the United States after WW II. Specifically, the role of the government and the scientific community to forge a coherent framework for the conduct of a national science and technology policy is studied. While there were several attempts to centralize the responsibility for R&D, these attempts were thwarted by bureaucratic organizations (such as the individual armed services) which saw centralization as a threat to their own scientific prerogatives. This research chronicles and analyzes this tension throughout the late 1940s and 1950s.;The quantitative results indicate that American R&D funding levels are not influenced by systemic factors, but are influenced by domestic political and economic variables. In addition to trade balances for particular industries, business and election cycle variables tend to influence R&D funding by the government. While this pattern is not consistent across all industries, it does manifest itself in several important industrial sectors, including petroleum extraction, electronics and communication equipment, and the aerospace industry.