Investment in Private Industrial Research and Development in Britain

end of the spectrum, and a new jar lid, say, at the other? If it can be regarded as a separate entity then the high cost development portion of research and development, as well as much research, becomes obsolete and is superseded, but at what rate is the investment retired? Is there a difference in the obsolescence rate of industrial research and development for the durable goods industry and for the non-durable goods industry? For process innovations and new or improved products? When does industrial research and development investment begin yielding some return? If it does so when it is completed what is meant by completed industrial research and development? How long a time period passes before the end of industrial research and development and its application? As a first step in answering these questions information was gathered from the private industrial sector using survey methods. This effort is reported in the first section. The second section of the paper presents annual estimates of private British industrial research and development investment, and related technical knowledge estimates for the period I948-70. Very few data are available about the characteristics and amount of industrial research and development expenditure in Britain and this study may be of some use in overcoming this data deficiency. This work, however, is limited to research and development expenditure performed or financed by the private sector.