Two economists from the University of Chicago won the Eugene Garfield Economic Impact of Medical and Health Research Award this month, given out by the advocacy group Research!America. Tomas Philipson and Anupam Jena looked at how much consumers save and companies profit from the development of life-extending AIDS drugs.

Each year, Garfield, who founded The Scientist 21 years ago, gives $5,000 to people who have taken a close look at the impact medical research has on the economy. It's a tough question to answer, as I found out while reporting an article on the subject in The Scientist this summer. The estimates of research?s impact on the economy vary widely, but one thing seems to be consistent: its impact appears positive. As Philipson and Jena found, for example, society gained $1.4 trillion from people?s lives being extended by AIDS drugs. The problem the authors find, however, is that companies are taking in just 5% of this "social surplus," raising concerns about the incentives companies have for innovation. You can read their study in the Forum for Health Economics and Policy.