Albert N. Link is Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His research focuses on innovation policy, academic entrepreneurship, and the economics of R&D. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Technology Transfer. Professor Link is serving as the vice-chairperson of the Innovation and Competitiveness Policies Committee of the United Nation's Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). John T. Scott is Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. His research is in the areas of industrial organization and the economics of technological change. He has served as the President of the Industrial Organization Society and on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Industrial Organization, the Review of Industrial Organization, and The Journal of Industrial Economics.

• About the Authors ; Introduction ; 1. Government's Role in Innovation ; 2. Historical Perspectives on Public Accountability ; 3. Systematic Approaches to Program Evaluation and Evaluation Metrics ; 4. Introduction to the Case Studies ; 5. The Advanced Technology Program's Intramural Research Awards Program ; 6. Wavelength References for Optical Fiber Communications ; 7. The Malcolm Balridge National Quality Award ; 8. Technologies for the Integration of Manufacturing Applications

Public support of R&D has played a vital role in U.S. economic growth but, at the same time, there is always the danger of wasting money by supporting bad projects. Link and Scott are two of the premier economists in the field, and in their superb book they lay out the approach needed to decide if and how public support should be provided. Globally, there is increasing public support for R&D and the U.S. should respond to the competitive pressure, but only by doing it right. Link and Scott tell us how.