Specifically the estimates of own-state “private” rates of return ranged from 7.4% to 27.6%, with an average of 18.9% per annum across the states and the estimates of national “social” rates of return ranged from 15.3% to 29.1%, with an average of 22.9% per annum across the states, and the rate of return to USDA intramural research was 18.7% per annum. Nevertheless even allowing for possible measurement errors and biases, the evidence shows that agricultural research has generated very large dividends. It supports the view that agriculture is characterized by market failures associated with incomplete property rights over inventions and that, in spite of the significant government intervention to correct the market failure, nations have continued to underinvest in agricultural research.