Problems in the Measurment of Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for Research and Experimental Development (GBAORD). Results from a Norwegian Survey

Abstract

In this paper we discuss problems in assessing the R&D content in the Norwegian State budget. Empirically, the paper draws on results from a survey of Norwegian ministries' interpretation of the R&D concept in general and their assessment of the R&D content in their budget portfolio in particular. The survey results were compared to national GBAORD data. At the national level the survey results seem to be in good correspondence with the GBAORD data, but at the detailed level the analysis shows several discrepancies between the two data sets. First, the deviations seem to be !argest for non-institutional budget items that contain a mix of R&D and other expenditures. Second, they seem to concem the development part of the R&D definition rather than the research aspect. Third, a particular set of conceptual problems seems to concern the ministries' policy making tools, e.g. policy studies and evaluations, which also relate to insufficient guidelines for discrirnination between R&D and non-R&D in the social sciences. Ministriesusing the R&D definitions actively tend to adapt them to the realities within their own policy area, and in ways not always compatible with the R&D definitions in the Frascati Manual.