Matt Clancy

2 months ago | mattsclancy.substack.com | Matt Clancy

Announcements:Innovation Growth Lab is hiring for multiple roles. Applications are due May 1. Learn more here. The Institute for Progress is hiring a Fellow / Senior Fellow to work on Metascience. Applications are due May 11. More information here. On to the post!This post was jointly written by me and Caroline Fry, assistant professor at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. This article will be updated as the state of the academic literature evolves; you can read the latest version here.

Mar 17, 2025 | mattsclancy.substack.com | Matt Clancy

New Things Under the Sun is a living literature review; when the literature changes, so do we! This post covers a few updates to articles. As a reminder, the most up-to-date versions of each article live on NewThingsUnderTheSun.com. But before we get into that, some announcements. Most importantly, my job is (temporarily) changing in ways that affect New Things Under the Sun.

Mar 17, 2025 | worksinprogress.news | Matt Clancy

We released Issue 18 of Works in Progress last week. Do not miss out on our articles on the failure of the British land value tax; how to extend women’s fertility into their 40s; why the Hanseatic league rose and fell; prehistoric psychopaths; the technologies that made pineapples one of the world’s top fruits;why America builds 5-over-1s while China builds towers in parks; and the century-old steam network that heats and powers Manhattan.

Feb 19, 2025 | mattsclancy.substack.com | Matt Clancy

This article will be updated as the state of the academic literature evolves; you can read the latest version here. How much does the US federal government spend on R&D? What kind of R&D does the government fund? What’s a reasonable guess at the average return on investment (ROI) of R&D? Has the average ROI of R&D spending changed over time? What’s a reasonable guess at the marginal, rather than average, ROI of government R&D? Is government support for R&D self-financing?

Feb 19, 2025 | newthingsunderthesun.com | Matt Clancy

To make this document more skimmable, after each question I’ve written a very short high level response in a quote block (aiming for the length of a tweet). A more detailed response is given below each quote block. If you have additional questions you would like to see answered, please The US government spent ~$160bn on R&D in 2022, about 2.6% of government spending. As a share of GDP or federal spending, federal support for R&D has declined for decades.