The Productivity Commission reports a “troubling” decline in research and development investment

The Commission reports this morning that productivity growth was “sluggish” in 2017-18. “This is troubling because investment typically embodies new technologies, which complement people’s skills development and innovation. This is especially so for investment in research and development, where capital stocks are now falling.”

The Commission suggests a bunch of reason why, including business being focused on short-term results, slower transfers of new knowledge and technologies from developers to adopters and the growth of service industries, such as health and education, where productivity is lower.

This is bad news for everybody in universities and government keen to partner with industry. Where’s innovation advocate Malcolm Turnbull now he’s needed?