Study sees little return on research tax credits

Despite "exponential growth" in tax credits provided to Iowa businesses for research and development – a 271 percent increase since 1996 – the state is failing to keep pace with the nation in creating high-tech jobs and firms that are crucial to retaining college graduates, a report released Friday says.

In fact, had Iowa performed as well as the national average in research and development activity, the state would have about 20,000 more scientific, engineering and other high-paying research and development jobs and nearly $1 billion more in research spending, the report from David Swenson and Liesl Eathington, two Iowa State University economists, shows.

"We’re having trouble figuring out what’s the payoff," Swenson said Friday.

By DONNELLE ELLER • [email protected]

Full Story: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100109/BUSINESS/1090332/1029/archive/Study-sees-little-return-on-research-tax-credits

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(Many thanks to the Lipper Current http://www.lippercurrent.com/dcn/lc.nsf/index.html for bringing this to our attention.)