A comparison of Census/NSF R&D data vs. Compustat R&D data in a financial decision-making model

This paper reports the results of a project in which R&D data drawn from National Science Foundation and Census Bureau studies were substituted in several financial models for R&D data drawn from the 1975–1982 Compustat tapes. The result using the Compustat data did not differ significantly from that based on the NSF/Census data in the aggregate, but significant differences were observed for certain industries and certain years. The purpose of...