Evaluating the federal role in financing health-related research

摘要

This paper considers the appropriate role for government in the support of scientific and technological progress in health care; the information the federal govern- ment needs to make well-informed decisions about its role; and the ways that federal policy toward research and devel- opment should respond to scientific advances, technology trends, and changes in the political and social environment. The principal justification for government support of research rests upon economic characteristics that lead private markets to provide inappropriate levels of research support or to supply inappropriate quantities of the products that result from research.