Picking winners is government's real task (journal article)
By Michael Vitale
From ATSE Focus, June/July 2009
"Objections to picking winners are generally either philosophical or practical - both lack factual support and fly in the face of actual government practice. The goal of government support for commercial R&D is to encourage projects with large social benefits but inadequate returns to private investors, and around the world many governments offer such support.
There have been relatively few rigorous attempts to demonstrate the benefits of such support, and there is an ongoing dispute about 'picking winners' - although theoretical objections to that approach rarely seem to stand in the way of accepting cash when it is offered, even if not all the companies shall have prizes. "