Andrew Fieldhouse

What Happens When the US Stops Funding the Science Behind SpaceX? NASA’s shrinking budget threatens the public science behind SpaceX’s success, and it could weaken America’s ability to develop breakthrough technologies.

I have a new essay in Bloomberg Weekend about how important government science is to advanced tech like SpaceX's Starship, and what we can expect from big cuts to government R&D:
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Thanks, Akhil, that’s too kind!

in which one of my favorite modern econ papers is referenced: government nondefense R&D accounts for about a fifth of post-World War II business-sector productivity growth in the US

I really enjoyed speaking with David Rotman for this excellent new piece in the MIT Technology Review, which cites two of our papers on the returns to government R&D investments: t.co/YjTsXgopVp

I don’t think I have ever publicly criticized any Presidential nominee before.

But E.J. Antoni is completely unqualified to be BLS Commissioner. He is an extreme partisan and does not have any relevant expertise.

He would be a break from decades of nonpartisan technocrats.

Trump economic adviser defends firing of labor official after soft jobs report Kevin Hassett pointed to the scale of hiring data revisions when asked for evidence to support Trump’s claims that the jobs report was politically rigged.

In my column yesterday about the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I explained the agency needs a leader committed to the data and its reporting, not the president. I called it the difference between a watchdog and a lapdog.

Prime example of the latter:

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

To build 'peace through strength,' restore this pillar of US power Administration cuts are breaking the federal-academic partnership that incubates U.S. technology and talent.

Great piece on the centrality of federal science & technology funding for U.S. national security by Frank Rose, former Principal Deputy Administrator of the NNSA, in @defenseone.bsky.social: www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/0...

Links to the papers here: www.dallasfed.org/~/media/docu...

And: andrewjfieldhouse.com/wp-content/u...

I really enjoyed doing this interview w/ @faculti.bsky.social about my recent papers 'The Social Returns to Public R&D' and an earlier paper 'The Returns to Government R&D: Evidence from U.S. Appropriations Shocks', both joint with Karel Mertens (Dallas Fed)

If government-funded research delivers such enormous economic returns, why does Washington keep cutting it? @fieldhouse.bsky.social , Mays Business School , @tamu.bsky.social , discusses: lnkd.in/d9sJKNvs
#finance

If government-funded research delivers such enormous economic returns, why does Washington keep cutting it? @fieldhouse.bsky.social , Mays Business School , @tamu.bsky.social , discusses: lnkd.in/d9sJKNvs
#finance

This also includes some provisions that the parliamentarian advised violate the Byrd rule. Some will get cured, but the cost will go up by as much as $450 billion (my guess is maybe around $250 billion, but that's a rough estimate).

Estimated Budgetary Effects of an Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Relative to the Budget Enforcement Baseline for Consideration in the Senate As posted on the website of the Senate Committee on the Budget on June 27, 2025

CBO cost estimate of the Senate GOP bill is out! But this is the version where they pretend $3.76 trillion of tax cuts are actually free.

When you account for that CBO estimates that their bill will increase deficits by $3.3 trillion over the decade, much more expensive than the House.

Congrats, @nathanlane.bsky.social!

Federal R&D funding boosts productivity for the whole economy − making big cuts to such government spending unwise Government R&D encompasses all innovative work the government directly pays for, regardless of who does it.

Slashing government R&D (Research and Development) isn’t just a budget cut – it’s a blow to U.S. innovation and long-term growth.

A recent study finds that federal science funding has driven over 20% of productivity gains since WWII.

buff.ly/dPSrknT

#innovation #science #USPolitics

Trump’s Big Bill Would Be More Regressive Than Any Major Law in Decades Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, released Thursday, offer a detailed view into the effects on income groups.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

figure 2. shows poor get poorer and rich get richer, percent change. -4% for bottom 10%. +2.5% roughly for top 10%.

dollar change. shows poor get poorer and rich get richer.

NEW FROM CBO: brutal distributional analysis of House GOP "Big Beautiful Bill"

On avg the bottom 30% of households get poorer under the GOP bill

Avg gets little - and are worse off if you include tariffs

This'd be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in history

Thank you!

Short piece but BIG picture.

Here's a link to the latest draft of our underlying Dallas Fed working paper, "The Returns to Government R&D: Evidence from U.S. Appropriations Shocks":
www.dallasfed.org/~/media/docu...

Punchline: "Even if the benefits of government R&D are slow to materialize... our research suggests that the U.S. economy will be less innovative and productive – and Americans will be worse off for it – if Congress agrees to deep cuts to science and research funding."

Federal R&D funding boosts productivity for the whole economy − making big cuts to such government spending unwise Government R&D encompasses all innovative work the government directly pays for, regardless of who does it.

I have a new short piece out this morning in the
@us.theconversation.com summarizing my research w/ Karel Mertens (Dallas Fed) on the economic benefits of government-funded R&D: theconversation.com/federal-rand...

this is quite the axe and i would be surprised if congress is happy with it

The Presidents Budget Request for NASA is out. It’s a bloodbath

Canceled are DAVINCI, VERITAS, Juno, OSIRIS-APEX, US participation in ExoMars and EnVision…

Huge cut to R&A. No funding to begin development of the Uranus Orbiter.

If you’ve ever cared about NASA, time to contact congress.

Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.

Congress has usually insulated nondefense R&D/science funding from budget cuts - and often increased these investments while cutting elsewhere. Instead cutting these funds would be expected to cause a bigger drag to U.S. productivity growth than from past fiscal consolidations

Relatedly, our new @nber.org working paper “The Social Returns to Public R&D,” analyzes how federal R&D funding has fared in recent fiscal consolidations, link here: andrewjfieldhouse.com/wp-content/u...

Our research suggests that cutting NIH funding by 40% and NSF funding by 50%, as proposed in the preliminary FY26 budget request, would cause a significant drag on U.S. productivity growth and output over the next ~7-15 years, as I discussed with Wendy

We find that federally funded nondefense R&D has fueled a lot of U.S. economic growth, accounting for at least 20% of all U.S. business-sector productivity growth since WWII, and estimate high rates of return on these investments of ~140-210%

Our conversation focused on my recent paper “The Returns to Government R&D: Evidence from U.S. Appropriations Shocks”, joint with Karel Mertens, and here’s a link to the latest draft of this Dallas Fed working paper: www.dallasfed.org/~/media/docu...