IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/italej/v9y2023i1d10.1007_s40797-021-00170-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating Public Support to the Investment Activities of Business Firms: A Multilevel Meta-Regression Analysis of Italian Studies

Author

Listed:
  • Chiara Bocci

    (University of Florence)

  • Annalisa Caloffi

    (University of Florence)

  • Marco Mariani

    (IRPET – Regional Institute for Economic Planning of Tuscany)

  • Alessandro Sterlacchini

    (Marche Polytechnic University)

Abstract

We conduct an extensive sign-and-significance meta-regression analysis of counterfactual programme evaluations from Italy, considering both published and grey literature on policies supporting firms’ investments. We specify a multilevel model for the probability of finding positive effect estimates, also assessing correlation possibly induced by co-authorship networks. We find that the probability of positive effects is considerable, especially for weaker firms and outcomes that are directly targeted by public programmes. However, these policies are less likely to trigger change in the long run.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiara Bocci & Annalisa Caloffi & Marco Mariani & Alessandro Sterlacchini, 2023. "Evaluating Public Support to the Investment Activities of Business Firms: A Multilevel Meta-Regression Analysis of Italian Studies," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 9(1), pages 1-34, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:italej:v:9:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s40797-021-00170-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s40797-021-00170-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40797-021-00170-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40797-021-00170-3?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ugur, Mehmet & Awaworyi, Sefa & Solomon, Edna, 2016. "Technological innovation and employment in derived labour demand models: A hierarchical meta-regression analysis," MPRA Paper 73557, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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. Maureen McKelvey & Rögnvaldur J Saemundsson, 2018. "An evolutionary model of innovation policy: conceptualizing the growth of knowledge in innovation policy as an evolution of policy alternatives," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(5), pages 851-865.
    4. Robert B. Olsen & Larry L. Orr & Stephen H. Bell & Elizabeth A. Stuart, 2013. "External Validity in Policy Evaluations That Choose Sites Purposively," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 107-121, January.
    5. Roberto Gabriele & Enrico Tundis, 2015. "Contesto regionale, struttura economica e impatto delle politiche regionali: il caso degli alberghi in Trentino," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3 Suppl.), pages 37-59.
    6. N. Berger, Allen & F. Udell, Gregory, 1998. "The economics of small business finance: The roles of private equity and debt markets in the financial growth cycle," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 613-673, August.
    7. Marusca De Castris & Guido Pellegrini, 2015. "Caratteristiche delle imprese ed eterogeneit? degli effetti degli incentivi alla r&s," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3 Suppl.), pages 61-79.
    8. Antonelli, Cristiano & Crespi, Francesco, 2013. "The "Matthew effect" in R&D public subsidies: The Italian evidence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(8), pages 1523-1534.
    9. Kluve, Jochen, 2010. "The effectiveness of European active labor market programs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 904-918, December.
    10. Castellacci, Fulvio & Lie, Christine Mee, 2015. "Do the effects of R&D tax credits vary across industries? A meta-regression analysis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 819-832.
    11. Elisa Barbieri & Roberto Iorio & Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera, 2010. "Incentivi alla ricerca e sviluppo in Italia: una indagine sugli effetti della Legge 46/82," Working Papers 1003, c.MET-05 - Centro Interuniversitario di Economia Applicata alle Politiche per L'industria, lo Sviluppo locale e l'Internazionalizzazione.
    12. Abel Brodeur & Mathias Lé & Marc Sangnier & Yanos Zylberberg, 2016. "Star Wars: The Empirics Strike Back," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 1-32, January.
    13. Alessandro Cusimano & Sylvain Barde & Fabio Mazzola, 2015. "Selection bias, incentivi alle imprese e sviluppo locale: una valutazione ex-post," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3 Suppl.), pages 103-128.
    14. Oriana Bandiera & Greg Fischer & Andrea Prat & Erina Ytsma, 2021. "Do Women Respond Less to Performance Pay? Building Evidence from Multiple Experiments," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 435-454, December.
    15. Ugur, Mehmet & Trushin, Eshref & Solomon, Edna & Guidi, Francesco, 2016. "R&D and productivity in OECD firms and industries: A hierarchical meta-regression analysis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 2069-2086.
    16. Fabio Mazzola, 2015. "Valutazione ex-post degli incentivi alle imprese nelle economie territoriali: nuovi sviluppi," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3 Suppl.), pages 5-12.
    17. Andrew Gelman & Guido Imbens, 2019. "Why High-Order Polynomials Should Not Be Used in Regression Discontinuity Designs," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 447-456, July.
    18. Adam B. Jaffe, 2002. "Building Programme Evaluation into the Design of Public Research-Support Programmes," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 18(1), pages 22-34, Spring.
    19. John P. A. Ioannidis & T. D. Stanley & Hristos Doucouliagos, 2017. "The Power of Bias in Economics Research," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 236-265, October.
    20. Davide Fantino & Giusy Cannone, 2013. "Evaluating the efficacy of European regional funds for R&D," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 902, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    21. Salvatore Zecchini & Marco Ventura, 2009. "The impact of public guarantees on credit to SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 191-206, February.
    22. Bernini, Cristina & Pellegrini, Guido, 2011. "How are growth and productivity in private firms affected by public subsidy? Evidence from a regional policy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 253-265, May.
    23. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens, 2017. "The State of Applied Econometrics: Causality and Policy Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 3-32, Spring.
    24. D'Ignazio, Alessio & Menon, Carlo, 2012. "The causal effect of credit guarantees for SMEs: evidence from Italy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58555, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    25. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    26. Alessandra Catozzella & Marco Vivarelli, 2016. "The possible adverse impact of innovation subsidies: some evidence from Italy," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 351-368, June.
    27. Oliviero Carboni, 2011. "R&D subsidies and private R&D expenditures: evidence from Italian manufacturing data," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 419-439.
    28. Bernini, Cristina & Cerqua, Augusto & Pellegrini, Guido, 2017. "Public subsidies, TFP and efficiency: A tale of complex relationships," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 751-767.
    29. Giovanni Cerulli & Bianca Potì, 2010. "The differential impact of privately and publicly funded R&D on R&D investment and innovation: The Italian case," Working Papers 10, Doctoral School of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome, revised 2010.
    30. Giovanni Cerulli & Roberto Gabriele & Bianca Potì, 2016. "The role of firm R&D effort and collaboration as mediating drivers of innovation policy effectiveness," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 426-447, July.
    31. Annalisa Caloffi & Marco Mariani, 2018. "Regional policy mixes for enterprise and innovation: A fuzzy-set clustering approach," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(1), pages 28-46, February.
    32. David Aristei & Alessandro Sterlacchini & Francesco Venturini, 2017. "Effectiveness of R&D subsidies during the crisis: firm-level evidence across EU countries," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(6), pages 554-573, August.
    33. Matias D. Cattaneo & Michael Jansson & Xinwei Ma, 2018. "Manipulation testing based on density discontinuity," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 18(1), pages 234-261, March.
    34. Raffaello Bronzini & Guido de Blasio & Guido Pellegrini & Alessandro Scognamiglio, 2008. "La valutazione del credito d'imposta per gli investimenti," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 98(4), pages 79-112, July-Augu.
    35. Giovanni Cerulli & Bianca Potì, 2012. "Evaluating the Robustness of the Effect of Public Subsidies on Firms' R&D: An Application to Italy," Journal of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 287-320, November.
    36. Guido de Blasio & Davide Fantino & Guido Pellegrini, 2015. "Evaluating the impact of innovation incentives: evidence from an unexpected shortage of funds," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 24(6), pages 1285-1314.
    37. Cerqua, Augusto & Pellegrini, Guido, 2014. "Do subsidies to private capital boost firms' growth? A multiple regression discontinuity design approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 114-126.
    38. Hunt Allcott, 2015. "Site Selection Bias in Program Evaluation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(3), pages 1117-1165.
    39. Colin B. Begg & Jesse A. Berlin, 1988. "Publication Bias: A Problem in Interpreting Medical Data," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 151(3), pages 419-445, May.
    40. Claudia Cantabene & Leopoldo Nascia, 2014. "The race for R&D subsidies: evaluating the effectiveness of tax credits in Italy," ECONOMIA E POLITICA INDUSTRIALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(3), pages 133-158.
    41. Chiara Bocci & Marco Mariani, 2015. "L?approccio delle funzioni dose-risposta per la valutazione di trattamenti continui nei sussidi alla r&s," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3 Suppl.), pages 81-102.
    42. Michael Peneder, 2008. "The Problem of Private Under-investment in Innovation: A Policy Mind Map," WIFO Working Papers 313, WIFO.
    43. Davide Antonioli & Alberto Marzucchi & Sandro Montresor, 2014. "Regional Innovation Policy and Innovative Behaviour: Looking for Additional Effects," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 64-83, January.
    44. Mytelka, Lynn K. & Smith, Keith, 2002. "Policy learning and innovation theory: an interactive and co-evolving process," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8-9), pages 1467-1479, December.
    45. Dimos, Christos & Pugh, Geoff, 2016. "The effectiveness of R&D subsidies: A meta-regression analysis of the evaluation literature," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 797-815.
    46. Sara Pavone & Elena Ragazzi & Lisa Sella, 2015. "Sostenere le imprese agro-industriali in Piemonte: un?analisi controfattuale," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3 Suppl.), pages 129-143.
    47. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, 2006. "Small and medium-size enterprises: Access to finance as a growth constraint," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2931-2943, November.
    48. Eva Vivalt, 2020. "How Much Can We Generalize From Impact Evaluations?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(6), pages 3045-3089.
    49. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    50. Alberto Marzucchi & Davide Antonioli & Sandro Montresor, 2015. "Industry–research co-operation within and across regional boundaries. What does innovation policy add?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 499-524, August.
    51. Boschi, Melisso & Girardi, Alessandro & Ventura, Marco, 2014. "Partial credit guarantees and SMEs financing," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 182-194.
    52. Valentina Adorno & Cristina Bernini & Guido Pellegrini, 2007. "The Impact of Capital Subsidies: New Estimations under Continuous Treatment," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 66(1), pages 67-92, March.
    53. Raffaello Bronzini & Guido De Blasio, 2006. "Una valutazione degli incentivi pubblici agli investimenti," Rivista italiana degli economisti, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 331-362.
    54. Stephan B. Bruns, 2017. "Meta-Regression Models and Observational Research," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(5), pages 637-653, October.
    55. Mark Dodgson, 2017. "Innovation in firms," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 33(1), pages 85-100.
    56. Imbens,Guido W. & Rubin,Donald B., 2015. "Causal Inference for Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521885881, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Marco Mariani & Fabrizia Mealli, 2018. "The Effects of R&D Subsidies to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Evidence from a Regional Program," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 4(2), pages 249-281, July.
    2. Chiara Bocci & Marco Mariani, 2015. "L?approccio delle funzioni dose-risposta per la valutazione di trattamenti continui nei sussidi alla r&s," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3 Suppl.), pages 81-102.
    3. 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.
    4. David Aristei & Alessandro Sterlacchini & Francesco Venturini, 2017. "Effectiveness of R&D subsidies during the crisis: firm-level evidence across EU countries," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(6), pages 554-573, August.
    5. Dimos, Christos & Pugh, Geoff & Hisarciklilar, Mehtap & Talam, Ema & Jackson, Ian, 2022. "The relative effectiveness of R&D tax credits and R&D subsidies: A comparative meta-regression analysis," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    6. Michel Dumont, 2015. "Working Paper 05-15 - Evaluation of federal tax incentives for private R&D in Belgium: An update," Working Papers 1505, Federal Planning Bureau, Belgium.
    7. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens, 2017. "The State of Applied Econometrics: Causality and Policy Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 3-32, Spring.
    8. Federico Cingano & Filippo Palomba & Paolo Pinotti & Enrico Rettore, 2022. "Making Subsidies Work: Rules vs. Discretion," CESifo Working Paper Series 9560, CESifo.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Wang, Yanbo & Li, Jizhen & Furman, Jeffrey L., 2017. "Firm performance and state innovation funding: Evidence from China’s innofund program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1142-1161.
    12. Mellace, Giovanni & Ventura, Marco, 2019. "Intended and unintended effects of public incentives for innovation. Quasi-experimental evidence from Italy," Discussion Papers on Economics 9/2019, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics.
    13. Shuang Wang & Shukuan Zhao & Dong Shao & Hongyu Liu, 2020. "Impact of Government Subsidies on Manufacturing Innovation in China: The Moderating Role of Political Connections and Investor Attention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-21, September.
    14. Aristei, David & Sterlacchini, Alessandro & Venturini, Francesco, 2015. "The effects of public supports on business R&D: firm-level evidence across EU countries," MPRA Paper 64611, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Andrea Bellucci & Luca Pennacchio & Alberto Zazzaro, 2019. "R&D Subsidies and Firms’ Debt Financing," CSEF Working Papers 527, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    16. Annalisa Caloffi & Marco Mariani & Alessandro Sterlacchini, 2016. "Evaluating Public Supports To The Investment Activities Of Business Firms: A Meta-Regression Analysis Of Italian Studies," Working Papers 0116, CREI Università degli Studi Roma Tre, revised 2016.
    17. Caloffi, Annalisa & Mariani, Marco & Rossi, Federica & Russo, Margherita, 2018. "A comparative evaluation of regional subsidies for collaborative and individual R&D in small and medium-sized enterprises," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(8), pages 1437-1447.
    18. Dumont, Michel, 2017. "Assessing the policy mix of public support to business R&D," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1851-1862.
    19. Bruno Ferman & Cristine Pinto & Vitor Possebom, 2020. "Cherry Picking with Synthetic Controls," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 510-532, March.
    20. Asdrubali, Pierfederico & Signore, Simone, 2015. "The Economic Impact of EU Guarantees on Credit to SMEs – Evidence from CESEE Countries," EIF Working Paper Series 2015/29, European Investment Fund (EIF).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Meta-regression analysis; Public incentives to private investments; Innovation policies; Programme evaluation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • L52 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Industrial Policy; Sectoral Planning Methods
    • L53 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Enterprise Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:italej:v:9:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s40797-021-00170-3. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.