The internal rate of return to public investment in agricultural R&D is estimated for each of the continental U.S. states. Theoretically, our contribution provides a way of obtaining the returns to a local public good using Rothbart’s concept of virtual prices. Empirically, we use the spatial...

This paper uses panel data for the 1980-2004 period to estimate the contributions of public research to U.S. agricultural productivity growth. Local and social internal rates of return are estimated accounting for the effects of R&D spill-in, extension activities and road density. R&D spill-in...