В комментариях написали важную мысль:
There was also the matter of tax policy. Corporate income taxes were about 50%, so the government effectively paid half the bill for a research lab. Personal income taxes could be as high as 90%, so shareholders would rather fund research on the long shot chance it paid off big rather than giving the government all but 10%. When they started cutting taxes in the 70s and even more in the 80s, research labs were no longer as good a deal as a company could just zero out research and cut a check to shareholders.
И всё даже ещё сложнее, так как высокие налоги сами по себе только возможность. К ним ещё нужны конкурентные условия, в которых компаниям нужны эти открытия и патенты.
