Should Taxpayers Pay for R&D? – with Jeffrey Miron and Aldo Musacchio

Should Taxpayers Pay for R&D? – with Jeffrey Miron and Aldo Musacchio

From You Might Be Right by Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs at University of Tennessee

May 21, 2026 · 53 min · Season 8 · Episode 56

About this episode

The episode debates the role of taxpayer funding in research and development with experts Jeffrey Miron and Aldo Musacchio.

From the internet and GPS to vaccines and artificial intelligence, federal research funding has helped shape modern life, but should government still play such a large role in innovation? Jeffrey Miron, VP for Research at the Cato Institute and Economics Lecturer at Harvard, and Aldo Musacchio, Professor of Management and Economics at Brandeis, join Governors Haslam and Bredesen to debate whether taxpayer-funded research still makes sense in a world increasingly driven by private capital.

People in this episode

Guests: Jeffrey Miron, Aldo Musacchio

Topics covered

  • taxpayer funding
  • research and development
  • government role in innovation
  • private capital
  • economic policy

Keywords

  • taxpayer funding
  • R&D
  • government innovation
  • private capital
  • economic policy
  • Cato Institute
  • Harvard
  • Brandeis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cato Institute, Harvard, Brandeis

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