Public R&D and Budgeting: Ontological Discussion, Country Examples, and A Technical Note on Turkey

Year 2015, Volume: 1 Issue: 3, 1 - 20, 01.11.2015

Ferhat Akbey

Abstract

What does Research and Development R&D mean for public economy? Is it a typical investment, a function of public service, or a kind of politico-economic gambling? Grounding on its “risky” economic character, we argue that, it is a “suigeneris” type of both economic and fiscal activity. Then, if so, the question is “where it should be displayed throughout the government budget? Due to the fact that, it is not a function of the state, R&D appropriations ought to be classified in “economic classification” of public budgets. This should be done for two ontological reasons: First, in a neo-liberal age, in which there is strong emphasis on the “minimal state”, a R&D type of -so to speak- investment cannot be perceived as a normal state activity. Even if it is so, and second, since it is an economic endeavor, it should be classified under the economic classification, not in functional one. Furthermore, the society has the right to discern the share of outlays on R&D within total public spending. The best way of doing this is to annex a brief chart to the budget or to issue a separate budget or report on R&D expenditures of state agencies, unless it is possible to do all

Keywords

Public R&D, Public Budgeting, Turkish Budgeting System, Budget Classification

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