The simulations do not distinguish between scientific research and R&D projects outside of academia. The relative usefulness of these two types of research is beyond the scope of the model. The main assumption of the simulations is that the research projects are selected strategically for their potential to enable or produce more cost-effective interventions.
I agree that the assumption about the cost-effectiveness of new interventions can and should be validated empirically. Estimating it from historical data is an important direction for future work, and I am planning to pursue it. I think the expected cost-effectiveness will be vastly different depending on the extent to which the research builds on established knowledge and techniques. In the extreme case of refining the best existing intervention, the expected cost-effectiveness of the new intervention would definitely be larger than 50%.
Thanks, your points make a lot of sense to me! The case does seem to be stronger for R&D generally and it’s helpful to know that you’re not arguing for investment in a specific stage of research. I also agree that targeting existing interventions for improvement could be very high yield :).
Thank you for your insightful comments, Marshall!
The simulations do not distinguish between scientific research and R&D projects outside of academia. The relative usefulness of these two types of research is beyond the scope of the model. The main assumption of the simulations is that the research projects are selected strategically for their potential to enable or produce more cost-effective interventions.
I agree that the assumption about the cost-effectiveness of new interventions can and should be validated empirically. Estimating it from historical data is an important direction for future work, and I am planning to pursue it. I think the expected cost-effectiveness will be vastly different depending on the extent to which the research builds on established knowledge and techniques. In the extreme case of refining the best existing intervention, the expected cost-effectiveness of the new intervention would definitely be larger than 50%.
Thanks, your points make a lot of sense to me! The case does seem to be stronger for R&D generally and it’s helpful to know that you’re not arguing for investment in a specific stage of research. I also agree that targeting existing interventions for improvement could be very high yield :).