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helped individuals who chose to return to school or remain in school to<br />

bolster their skills in a demanding job market. As a result, the Pell Grant<br />

program offered $36.5 billion in aid to more than 8.8 million undergraduate<br />

students in FY 2010, compared to roughly half as much aid, $18.3 billion, for<br />

6.2 million students in FY 2008 (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). The<br />

largest growth in Pell Grant applications came from students in the lowestincome<br />

categories. For tax year 2009, 8.3 million tax returns claimed $14.4<br />

billion in American Opportunity Tax Credits. This level of education credits<br />

(including the lifetime learning credit) was a nearly $10 billion increase from<br />

the prior year (U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2010b).<br />

Investments in Technology and Innovation<br />

Some of the highest returns to investment are in the area of innovation.<br />

Often, innovation produces large returns for the economy as a whole,<br />

but since businesses do not capture all these society-wide returns, they<br />

tend to underinvest in innovation. For example, firms may not undertake<br />

research and development even though it would benefit the rest of their<br />

industry, other industries, and their regional economies. In general, looking<br />

across a range of industries, economists have estimated that the divergence<br />

between private and social returns to investment may be as great as two-toone<br />

(for instance, Hall et al. 2009). This is especially true when investments<br />

can result in externalities that are not captured by the entity making the<br />

investment. For instance, in the energy sector, there are substantial climate<br />

and national security benefits to cleaner energy that are not fully internalized<br />

in the form of financial rewards for individual firms. The Recovery Act made<br />

a significant impact on innovation—complementing the other measures this<br />

Administration has taken to encourage innovation.<br />

Scientific Research. The Recovery Act provided a one-time supplemental<br />

appropriation of over $3 billion for the National Science Foundation<br />

and $1 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It also<br />

increased support for the National Institute of Standards and Technology<br />

and provided the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)<br />

with funding of $400 million. The ARPA-E is charged with researching<br />

transformative energy technologies. So far it has pioneered research into socalled<br />

second-generation biofuels, which utilize agricultural and municipal<br />

waste, as well as more efficient batteries, superconducting wires, and vehicles<br />

powered by natural gas.<br />

Clean energy. Clean energy was the focus of more than $90 billion in<br />

government investment and tax incentives in the Recovery Act. The purpose<br />

of these investments was to help create new jobs, reduce dependence<br />

on foreign oil, enhance national security, and improve the environment<br />

128 | Chapter 3

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