While critics of the attempt to measure the economic returns from research are correct in noting that there are benefits from research that may not be measurable by economic activity, economics is by its very nature a discipline in which the ultimate evidence of success in research would be that it has resulted in knowledge that has enhanced the performance of the economy. It would therefore be interesting to establish how much of the increased productivity of our resources and thus our living standard has been due to research in science and technology and the arts, and how much has been due to insights generated by research in economics.
Susanna Sallstrom Matthews, Cambridge.