Doctoral students are absurdly good value for money, especially in nations that have a high density of high prestige universities, and they both train the workf

Doctoral students are absurdly good value for money, especially in nations that have a high density of high prestige universities, and they both train the workforce, and are trained. So I think it's an obvious move for states (especially ones with a ton of grand old universities) to milk that for all its worth. It's a way of transforming historical prestige, and a smattering of cash, into a competitive economic advantage. I guess the flipside of this is that, for a business, it makes way more sense to give money to a university than it does to start your own lab. You'd be paying real (and probably decent) wages to people who wouldn't be nearly as motivated as the phds who do the same work for less than minimum wage.