@a_h_reaume @ctenigmavar @ATabarrok Only one of us was an endowed professor who ran a federally funded research lab and I don’t think it’s you.

@a_h_reaume You’ve told us how much smarter you are, but paying 60% of the cost of research for electricity and janitorial services doesn’t sound too bright.

In our @heritage study we found that a "$100 million increase in the total amount of indirect costs received by a university is associated with 15.5 additional DEI employees."

RT @lindseymburke: @RepAndyHarrisMD @Heritage_Action Absolutely. For more on this, see @jaypgreene’s work

The amount Arnold might spend is not fixed. If he were charged the same overhead as taxpayers he might have to spend $1.6 million to get the same amount of research as he could buy for $1 million with 0% overhead. NIH also says they are spending same amount and just changing the mix between direct and indirect, so you should be fine with that, right?

@ATabarrok @stuartbuck1 The people who pay more for late-booking are cross-subsidizing those who buy early, but the late bookers receive flexibility in making their plans in exchange for paying more. What do taxpayers get in exchange for paying more than Bill Gates for overhead on university research?

@ATabarrok @stuartbuck1 If Walmart charged foodstamp customers 4 times as much for the same product as they charged private-paying costumers, I would oppose that. But Walmart doesn't do that while universities do. Taxpayers pay 60% for overhead on university research while Bill Gates pays 15%.

@stuartbuck1 @ATabarrok Provosts, deans, secretaries and grants admin staff that cost more than 15%? Sounds like some serious administrative bloat.

@stuartbuck1 @ATabarrok It is wrong to have taxpayers subsidize billionaire foundations. And most indirect costs could be calculated as directs, holding universities more accountable. The unallocatable costs may be close to 15%. No one knows bc university finances are shockingly opaque.

RT @DailySignal: During last week’s National School Choice Week observations, charters were barely an afterthought, their political energy…

@DisneyKid1955 @ATabarrok See. Not much of a negotiation when HHS barely haggles. And if this is breach of contract, try suing.

@DisneyKid1955 @ATabarrok I assure you, determining indirect rates is also not akin to a negotiation in any normal usage of the term

@DisneyKid1955 @ATabarrok And now the NIH is “negotiating” a new rate.

@ctenigmavar @ATabarrok You can’t have it both ways. If the coastal universities have the advantages of economies of scale and large endowments, why do they charge higher indirect rates?

If it costs more to produce research at coastal universities, maybe we should prefer having more grants go to universities in the middle of the country where they can make that 15% go a lot further. It might also be less obnoxious to taxpayers in the heartland who see almost all of the research pork go elsewhere.

RT @RyanJohnsonMO: .@lindseymburke of @Heritage remains a national treasure. If you are a policymaker and want to know what to do on educa…

RT @PrestonCooper93: “Schools that receive more federal research funding also receive higher indirect cost rates. One would expect universi…

@elonmusk If research overhead is for fixed costs, the rate charged should go down as universities get more grants. But the opposite is true. We found “Universities that receive more research funding tend to have higher federal indirect cost rates”