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Corporate R&D

Ernst & Young released, in April 2008, a study on the use of the corporate R&D tax credit. They state that the credits are used primarily for these purposes: wages for company employees; supplies for research; work performed by outside organizations. Universities apparently would fall into this third category.

Analysis of tax returns seems a more fruitful endeavor than hoping for response to surveys. Much of the data in the E&Y report is from the National Science Foundation, which has a poor response rate. Corporations tend to not want to talk about their R&D expenditure -- this spending is generally to achieve some corporate advantage.

Oregon is 19th (surprisingly high) with over 1,000 firms using the credit; and 16th in terms of share of R&D. Further analysis seems warranted.

posted by Dana Bostrom @ 08:36