IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceps/v83y2022ics003801212100029x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public funds in high-tech industries: A blessing or a curse

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Bofei
  • Zhu, Shengjun

Abstract

Public funds play an important role in promoting innovation in high-tech industries. Using a dataset on China's high-tech industries, this paper seeks to pay attention not only to the direct effects of public funds on the innovation dynamics of high-tech industries, but also to their indirect effects and the articulation of public and private funds. Empirical results first confirm that public funds could boost the innovation performance of high-tech industries in terms of the development of patents and new products. However, the share of public funds should be maintained at a certain level to avoid an over-reliance on public funds. Second, our results also confirm the indirect effects of public funds. Specifically, at the R&D stage, public funds can enhance the effects of private funds on high-tech firms' innovation performance, given their different but complementary resources, while at the application stage, public and private funds conflict with one another in terms of interests and needs. Finally, the direction and magnitude of public funds' direct and indirect effects vary across regions and industries. Our findings imply that public funds may be needed more in lagging regions and immature industries that suffer severely from lack of financial resources and some other fundamental factors for innovation in high-tech industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Bofei & Zhu, Shengjun, 2022. "Public funds in high-tech industries: A blessing or a curse," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:83:y:2022:i:c:s003801212100029x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2021.101037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003801212100029X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.seps.2021.101037?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lydia Greunz, 2003. "Geographically and technologically mediated knowledge spillovers between European regions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 37(4), pages 657-680, December.
    2. Raffaello Bronzini & Eleonora Iachini, 2014. "Are Incentives for R&D Effective? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Approach," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 100-134, November.
    3. Sampsa Samila & Olav Sorenson, 2011. "Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Growth," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 338-349, February.
    4. Stefano Breschi, 2000. "The Geography of Innovation: A Cross-sector Analysis," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 213-229.
    5. Riccardo Crescenzi & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2012. "The territorial dynamics of innovation in China and India," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(5), pages 1055-1085, September.
    6. González, Xulia & Pazó, Consuelo, 2008. "Do public subsidies stimulate private R&D spending?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 371-389, April.
    7. Eduardo Lora, 2007. "Public Investment in Infrastructure in Latin America: Is Debt the Culprit?," Research Department Publications 4502, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    8. Fabrizio Barca & Philip McCann & Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose, 2012. "The Case For Regional Development Intervention: Place‐Based Versus Place‐Neutral Approaches," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 134-152, February.
    9. Crescenzi, Riccardo & Gagliardi, Luisa & Iammarino, Simona, 2015. "Foreign multinationals and domestic innovation: Intra-industry effects and firm heterogeneity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 596-609.
    10. repec:fth:harver:1473 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Thomas Hellmann & Manju Puri, 2002. "Venture Capital and the Professionalization of Start‐Up Firms: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 169-197, February.
    12. Shengjun Zhu & Canfei He & Yi Zhou, 2017. "How to jump further and catch up? Path-breaking in an uneven industry space," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 521-545.
    13. Huang, Haizhou & Xu, Chenggang, 1998. "Soft Budget Constraint and the Optimal Choices of Research and Development Projects Financing," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 62-79, March.
    14. Li, Hongbin & Zhou, Li-An, 2005. "Political turnover and economic performance: the incentive role of personnel control in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1743-1762, September.
    15. Motoyama, Yasuyuki & Cao, Cong & Appelbaum, Richard, 2014. "Observing regional divergence of Chinese nanotechnology centers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 11-21.
    16. Liu, Feng-chao & Simon, Denis Fred & Sun, Yu-tao & Cao, Cong, 2011. "China's innovation policies: Evolution, institutional structure, and trajectory," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 917-931, September.
    17. Pinar Ozcan & Filipe M. Santos, 2015. "The market that never was: Turf wars and failed alliances in mobile payments," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(10), pages 1486-1512, October.
    18. Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Tian, Xuan & Xu, Yan, 2014. "Financial development and innovation: Cross-country evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 116-135.
    19. Xiaoming Xu & Yanyang Yan, 2014. "Does government investment crowd out private investment in China?," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 1-12, January.
    20. David, Paul A. & Hall, Bronwyn H. & Toole, Andrew A., 2000. "Is public R&D a complement or substitute for private R&D? A review of the econometric evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4-5), pages 497-529, April.
    21. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Marco Di Cataldo, 2015. "Quality of government and innovative performance in the regions of Europe," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(4), pages 673-706.
    22. Aschauer, David Alan, 1989. "Does public capital crowd out private capital?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 171-188, September.
    23. Engelbrecht, Hans-Jurgen, 1997. "International R&D spillovers, human capital and productivity in OECD economies: An empirical investigation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 1479-1488, August.
    24. Maryann Feldman, 1999. "The New Economics Of Innovation, Spillovers And Agglomeration: Areview Of Empirical Studies," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1-2), pages 5-25.
    25. Massimo Colombo & Douglas Cumming & Silvio Vismara, 2016. "Governmental venture capital for innovative young firms," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 10-24, February.
    26. Frank Neffke & Martin Henning & Ron Boschma, 2011. "How Do Regions Diversify over Time? Industry Relatedness and the Development of New Growth Paths in Regions," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 87(3), pages 237-265, July.
    27. Cavallo, Eduardo & Daude, Christian, 2011. "Public investment in developing countries: A blessing or a curse?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 65-81, March.
    28. Jerker Moodysson & Elena Zukauskaite, 2014. "Institutional Conditions and Innovation Systems: On the Impact of Regional Policy on Firms in Different Sectors," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 127-138, January.
    29. Svensson, Roger, 2007. "Commercialization of patents and external financing during the R&D phase," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1052-1069, September.
    30. Roberta Piergiovanni & Enrico Santarelli, 2001. "Patents and the Geographic Localization of R&D Spillovers in French Manufacturing," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(8), pages 697-702.
    31. Daron Acemoglu & Melissa Dell, 2010. "Productivity Differences between and within Countries," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 169-188, January.
    32. Eduardo Lora, 2007. "Public Investment in Infrastructure in Latin America: Is Debt the Culprit?," Research Department Publications 4502, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    33. Szczygielski, Krzysztof & Grabowski, Wojciech & Pamukcu, Mehmet Teoman & Tandogan, Vedat Sinan, 2017. "Does government support for private innovation matter? Firm-level evidence from two catching-up countries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 219-237.
    34. Qayoom Khachoo & Ruchi Sharma, 2016. "FDI and Innovation: An Investigation into Intra- and Inter-industry Effects," Global Economic Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(4), pages 311-330, October.
    35. Peng Wang & Xiaoyan Lin & Shuoshuo Li, 2019. "Evaluation of government‐supported provincial innovation competitiveness—Evidence from China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 587-608, June.
    36. Matthew A. Zook, 2002. "Grounded capital: venture financing and the geography of the Internet industry, 1994--2000," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 151-177, April.
    37. Gary S. Becker, 1983. "A Theory of Competition Among Pressure Groups for Political Influence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(3), pages 371-400.
    38. Bertoni, Fabio & Tykvová, Tereza, 2015. "Does governmental venture capital spur invention and innovation? Evidence from young European biotech companies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 925-935.
    39. Josh Lerner, 2002. "When Bureaucrats Meet Entrepreneurs: The Design of Effective "Public Venture Capital" Programmes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(477), pages 73-84, February.
    40. Xiaohui Hu & Robert Hassink, 2017. "Place leadership with Chinese characteristics? A case study of the Zaozhuang coal-mining region in transition," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(2), pages 224-234, February.
    41. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Patent Statistics as Economic Indicators: A Survey," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 287-343, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    42. Dirk Fornahl & Tom Broekel & Ron Boschma, 2011. "What drives patent performance of German biotech firms? The impact of R&D subsidies, knowledge networks and their location," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 90(2), pages 395-418, June.
    43. Guerini, Massimiliano & Quas, Anita, 2016. "Governmental venture capital in Europe: Screening and certification," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 175-195.
    44. Ram Mudambi, 2008. "Location, control and innovation in knowledge-intensive industries," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(5), pages 699-725, September.
    45. Rhiannon Pugh & Niall G. MacKenzie & Dylan Jones-Evans, 2018. "From ‘Techniums’ to ‘emptiums’: the failure of a flagship innovation policy in Wales," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(7), pages 1009-1020, July.
    46. H. Huang & C. Xu, 1998. "Soft Budget Constraint and the Optimal Choices of R&D Projects Financing," Working Papers 377, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    47. Zhang, Xiaobo & Fan, Shenggen, 2004. "Public investment and regional inequality in rural China," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 89-100, March.
    48. Zhao, Shukuan & Xu, Baoda & Zhang, Weiyong, 2018. "Government R&D subsidy policy in China: An empirical examination of effect, priority, and specifics," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 75-82.
    49. Hong, Jin & Feng, Bing & Wu, Yanrui & Wang, Liangbing, 2016. "Do government grants promote innovation efficiency in China's high-tech industries?," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 57, pages 4-13.
    50. Cappelen, Ådne & Raknerud, Arvid & Rybalka, Marina, 2012. "The effects of R&D tax credits on patenting and innovations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 334-345.
    51. Lichtenberg, Frank R, 1984. "The Relationship between Federal Contract R&D and Company R&D," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(2), pages 73-78, May.
    52. Baocheng He & Jiawei Wang & Jiaoyang Wang & Kun Wang, 2018. "The Impact of Government Competition on Regional R&D Efficiency: Does Legal Environment Matter in China’s Innovation System?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, November.
    53. Todtling, Franz & Trippl, Michaela, 2005. "One size fits all?: Towards a differentiated regional innovation policy approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1203-1219, October.
    54. María Callejón & José García-Quevedo, 2005. "Public Subsidies to Business R&D: Do They Stimulate Private Expenditures?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 23(2), pages 279-293, April.
    55. Giusy Cannone & Elisa Ughetto, 2014. "Funding Innovation at Regional Level: An Analysis of a Public Policy Intervention in the Piedmont Region," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 270-283, February.
    56. Scott J. Wallsten, 2000. "The Effects of Government-Industry R&D Programs on Private R&D: The Case of the Small Business Innovation Research Program," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(1), pages 82-100, Spring.
    57. repec:rre:publsh:v:33:y:2003:i:1:p:73-84 is not listed on IDEAS
    58. Brian W. Head, 2011. "Governance for sustainable regions: can government meet the innovation policy challenge?," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(3), pages 219-230, August.
    59. Xiaoming Xu & Yanyang Yan, 2014. "Does government investment crowd out private investment in China?," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 1-12, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aristovnik, Aleksander & Yang, Guo-liang & Song, Yao-yao & Ravšelj, Dejan, 2023. "Industrial performance of the top R&D enterprises in world-leading economies: A metafrontier approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Yuchen & Meng, Jiayin & Zhou, Ruifan & Wang, Ying, 2024. "Does governmental venture capital (GVC) advance green innovation? Big data evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 772-788.
    2. Engberg, Erik & Halvarsson, Daniel & Tingvall, Patrik, 2017. "Direct and Indirect Effects of Private- and Government Sponsored Venture Capital," Ratio Working Papers 288, The Ratio Institute.
    3. Tom Broekel & Lars Mewes, 2017. "Analyzing the impact of R&D policy on regional diversification," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1726, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2017.
    4. Thomas H. W. Ziesemer, 2021. "The Effects of R&D Subsidies and Publicly Performed R&D on Business R&D: A Survey," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 236(1), pages 171-205, March.
    5. Roberto Gabriele & Anna Giunta, 2012. "R&D Incentives: The Effectiveness Of A Place-Based Policy," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0169, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
    6. Andrea Bellucci & Luca Pennacchio & Alberto Zazzaro, 2019. "Public R&D subsidies: collaborative versus individual place-based programs for SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 213-240, January.
    7. Andrea Bellucci & Luca Pennacchio & Alberto Zazzaro, 2016. "Public subsidies for SME research and development: Empirical evaluation of collaborative versus individual place-based programs," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 133, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    8. Fabio Bertoni & Massimo G. Colombo & Anita Quas, 2019. "The Role of Governmental Venture Capital in the Venture Capital Ecosystem: An Organizational Ecology Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(3), pages 611-628, May.
    9. Berger, Marius & Hottenrott, Hanna, 2021. "Start-up subsidies and the sources of venture capital," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    10. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Marco Di Cataldo, 2015. "Quality of government and innovative performance in the regions of Europe," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(4), pages 673-706.
    11. Weijiang Liu & Yue Bai, 2021. "An Analysis on the Influence of R&D Fiscal and Tax Subsidies on Regional Innovation Efficiency: Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-24, November.
    12. Erik Engberg & Patrik Gustavsson Tingvall & Daniel Halvarsson, 2021. "Direct and indirect effects of private- and government-sponsored venture capital," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 701-735, February.
    13. Choi, Joonhwan & Lee, Jaegul, 2017. "Repairing the R&D market failure: Public R&D subsidy and the composition of private R&D," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1465-1478.
    14. Zhao, Bo & Ziedonis, Rosemarie, 2020. "State governments as financiers of technology startups: Evidence from Michigan's R&D loan program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(4).
    15. Aiello, Francesco & Albanese, Giuseppe & Piselli, Paolo, 2019. "Good value for public money? The case of R&D policy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1057-1076.
    16. Dirk Czarnitzki & Julie Delanote, 2015. "R&D policies for young SMEs: input and output effects," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 465-485, October.
    17. Sajad Ahmad Bhat & Javed Ahmad Bhat & Taufeeq Ajaz, 2020. "The Public–Private Investment Nexus In India: Evidence From A Policy Simulation Approach," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 65(224), pages 101-128, January –.
    18. Jeaneth Johansson & Malin Malmström & Joakim Wincent, 2021. "Sustainable Investments in Responsible SMEs: That’s What’s Distinguish Government VCs from Private VCs," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-22, January.
    19. Morten Henningsen & Torbjørn Hægeland & Jarle Møen, 2015. "Estimating the additionality of R&D subsidies using proposal evaluation data to control for research intentions," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 227-251, April.
    20. Ron Boschma, 2022. "Evolutionary Economic Geography and Policy," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2220, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Oct 2022.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:83:y:2022:i:c:s003801212100029x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/seps .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.