The Therapeutic Consequences of the War: World War II and the 20th-Century Expansion of Biomedicine
During World War II, the U.S. Committee on Medical Research (CMR) undertook an integrated, cross-sectoral effort to develop medical science and technology for war, representing the U.S. government's first substantial investment in medical research. Although it had mixed results during the war, using data on all CMR research contracts we show that it laid a foundation for the postwar takeoff of the U.S. biomedical innovation system. New and emerging research areas it supported experienced rapid growth in postwar science. It also fueled new postwar drug development, influenced medical practice, and shaped extramural research funding at the National Institutes of Health. These changes were accompanied by growing interdependence between science and technology and between firms, universities, and the federal government, reflecting biomedicine's increasingly systemic character. The evidence points to the long-run effects coordinated, integrative research policy can have in spurring the development of innovation systems and shifting technology sectors into a high-investment, high-growth development path.
Non-Technical Summaries
- While US biomedical research funding generally allows researchers considerable freedom in determining the most promising topics to...
Related
Topics
Programs
Working Groups
Conferences
More from NBER
In addition to working papers, the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals — the NBER Reporter, the NBER Digest, the Bulletin on Retirement and Disability, the Bulletin on Health, and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship — as well as online conference reports, video lectures, and interviews.
