Science, accounting and statistics: The input–output framework

Statistics on science are often framed within an input–output framework: inputs are invested into research activities that produce outputs. This framework is a pure accounting framework based on the anticipated economic benefits of science. This paper asks where the framework comes from. It shows that the semantics on input and output in science can be traced back to the economic literature, and its analyses of growth via an econometric equation called the production function. Used extensively by economists in the mid-1950s to study science and its relationship to the economy, the semantics immediately offered official statisticians a conceptual framework for organizing statistics on science. This is due to the fact that the framework was perfectly aligned with policy discussions on the efficiency of the science system.