Of course, we'd be buying marginal research, not average research: we can get a good lower bound on the marginal benefit of more money by looking at the value of more equipment or somewhat skilled labor for labs

I was going to say, I can see how I might estimate the value of 1% of MIT's scientific output, but I don't see how I would do this. Where do you get the value of more equipment or more skilled labor? Is there a data source or Fermi calculation I am overlooking?