The Impact of Corporate Restructuring on Industrial Research and Development

Bronwyn H. Hall

Bronwyn H. Hall University of California, Berkeley

Discussants: Ernst R. Berndt and

Ernst R. Berndt Professor in Applied Economics Emeritus - MIT Sloan School of Management

Richard C. Levin

RCL

Richard C. Levin

MANY CLAIM that the mergers, leveraged buyouts, and restructurings in the U.S. corporate sector during the 1980s had a detrimental effect on industrial spending for research and development. Critics of this recent activity point to the stagnation in real R&D expenditures by the private sector during the 1980s and suggest that these restructurings were a major cause of the decline. Others view this process as a healthy revitalization of U.S. industry in the face of foreign competition and a changing regulatory and financial environment.