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Abstract
With the growing competition for Federal
dollars, the land grant universities were asked
to justify their budget to the Congress and the
Office of Management and Budget using benefitcost
analysis. The authors review previous studies
of returns to agricultural research and present an
analysis of corn and soybean research that formed
part of these universities' 1978 budget request for
Federal monies. New research to increase corn
and soybean production would bring very high
returns, and consumers would be the primary
beneficiaries. The large acreage affected by the
research was an important reason for these high
returns. Consumers would benefit from lower
prices and the resulting increase in consumer surplus.