IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eti/dpaper/11072.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Much Do R&D Tax Credits Affect R&D Expenditures? Japanese tax credit reform in 2003

Author

Listed:
  • KASAHARA Hiroyuki
  • SHIMOTSU Katsumi
  • SUZUKI Michio

Abstract

How much do tax credits affect firms' R&D activities? What are the mechanisms? Few empirical studies directly examine the effect of tax credit policies on firms' R&D investments and the importance of financial constraints on the policy effects on R&D. This paper examines the effect of the Japanese tax credit reform in 2003 on firms' R&D investments by exploiting cross-firm variation in the changes in the effective tax credit rate between 2002 and 2003. Regression results suggest a significantly positive effect of the change in the effective tax credit rate on corporate R&D investments. Across different specifications, the estimated (semi-) elasticity of R&D investments with respect to the effective tax credit rate is 2.3 with an approximate standard error of 0.6. We also examine the policy implications of financial constraints on R&D investments and find that the effect of tax credits is significantly larger for firms with relatively large outstanding debt.

Suggested Citation

  • KASAHARA Hiroyuki & SHIMOTSU Katsumi & SUZUKI Michio, 2011. "How Much Do R&D Tax Credits Affect R&D Expenditures? Japanese tax credit reform in 2003," Discussion papers 11072, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:11072
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieti.go.jp/jp/publications/dp/11e072.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Van Reenen, John & Griffith, Rachel & Bloom, Nicholas, 2000. "Do R&D Credits Work? Evidence From A Panel Of Countries 1979-97," CEPR Discussion Papers 2415, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Chia-Hui Huang & Chih-Hai Yang, 2009. "Tax Incentives and R&D Activity: Firm-Level Evidence from Taiwan," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd09-102, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    4. Stephen Bond & Dietmar Harhoff & John Van Reenen, 2010. "Investment, R&D and Financial Constraints in Britain and Germany," NBER Chapters, in: Contributions in Memory of Zvi Griliches, pages 433-460, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. James R. Brown & Steven M. Fazzari & Bruce C. Petersen, 2009. "Financing Innovation and Growth: Cash Flow, External Equity, and the 1990s R&D Boom," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 151-185, February.
    6. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 141-206.
    7. Hall, Bronwyn H., 1993. "R&D Tax Policy During the 1980s: Success of Failure?," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt8151h8tg, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    8. Howitt, Peter & Aghion, Philippe, 1998. "Capital Accumulation and Innovation as Complementary Factors in Long-Run Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 111-130, June.
    9. Kenneth Arrow, 1962. "Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention," NBER Chapters, in: The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors, pages 609-626, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:4:p:1777-1804 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Ogawa, Kazuo, 2007. "Debt, R&D investment and technological progress: A panel study of Japanese manufacturing firms' behavior during the 1990s," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 403-423, December.
    12. Bronwyn H. Hall, 1993. "R&D Tax Policy during the 1980s: Success or Failure?," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 7, pages 1-36, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Himmelberg, Charles P & Petersen, Bruce C, 1994. "R&D and Internal Finance: A Panel Study of Small Firms in High-Tech Industries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(1), pages 38-51, February.
    14. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    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. Yohei Kobayashi, 2014. "Effect of R&D tax credits for SMEs in Japan: a microeconometric analysis focused on liquidity constraints," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 311-327, February.

    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. Kasahara, Hiroyuki & Shimotsu, Katsumi & Suzuki, Michio, 2014. "Does an R&D tax credit affect R&D expenditure? The Japanese R&D tax credit reform in 2003," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 72-97.
    2. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Lerner, Josh, 2010. "The Financing of R&D and Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 609-639, Elsevier.
    3. Hiroyuki Kasahara & Katsumi Shimotsu & Michio Suzuki, 2012. "Does an R&D Tax Credit Affect R&D Expenditure? The Japanese Tax Credit Reform in 2003," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd11-220, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    4. Muhammad Kaleem Khan & Ahmad Kaleem & Salman Zulfiqar & Umair Akram, 2019. "Innovation Investment: Behaviour Of Chinese Firms Towards Financing Sources," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(07), pages 1-29, October.
    5. Bettina Becker, 2013. "The Determinants of R&D Investment: A Survey of the Empirical Research," Discussion Paper Series 2013_09, Department of Economics, Loughborough University, revised Sep 2013.
    6. Aysun, Uluc & Kabukcuoglu, Zeynep, 2019. "Interest rates, R&D investment and the distortionary effects of R&D incentives," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 191-210.
    7. Álvarez-Ayuso, Inmaculada C. & Kao, Chihwa & Romero-Jordán, Desiderio, 2018. "Long run effect of public grants and tax credits on R&D investment: A non-stationary panel data approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 93-104.
    8. Martinsson, Gustav, 2009. "Finance and R&D Investments - is there a debt overhang effect on R&D investments?," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 174, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    9. Brown, James R. & Martinsson, Gustav & Petersen, Bruce C., 2017. "What promotes R&D? Comparative evidence from around the world," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 447-462.
    10. Bronwyn Hall, 2004. "The financing of research and development," Chapters, in: Anthony Bartzokas & Sunil Mani (ed.), Financial Systems, Corporate Investment in Innovation, and Venture Capital, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Milani, Sahar & Neumann, Rebecca, 2022. "R&D, patents, and financing constraints of the top global innovative firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 546-567.
    12. Bettina Becker & Stephen Hall, 2004. "Foreign direct investment in industrial R&D and exchange rate uncertainty in the UK," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2003 4, Money Macro and Finance Research Group.
    13. Antonio Acconcia & Claudia Cantabene, 2018. "Liquidity and Firms’ Response to Fiscal Stimulus," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(613), pages 1759-1785, August.
    14. Michele Cincera & Julien Ravet & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2014. "R&D Financing Constraints of Young and Old Innovation Leaders in the EU and the US," Working Papers TIMES² 2014-008, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    15. Weng, Qian & Söderbom, Måns, 2018. "Is R&D cash flow sensitive? Evidence from Chinese industrial firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 77-95.
    16. He, Yiqing & Ding, Xin & Yang, Chuchu, 2021. "Do environmental regulations and financial constraints stimulate corporate technological innovation? Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    17. Polona Domadenik & Janez Prasnikar & Jan Svejnar, 2008. "How to Increase R&D in Transition Economies? Evidence from Slovenia," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 193-208, February.
    18. Brown, James R. & Petersen, Bruce C., 2011. "Cash holdings and R&D smoothing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 694-709, June.
    19. Mueller, Elisabeth & Zimmermann, Volker, 2006. "The Importance of Equity Finance for R&D Activity: Are There Differences Between Young and OldCompanies?," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-014, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    20. Martinsson, Gustav & Lööf, Hans, 2009. "Internal Finance and Patents - evidence from firm-level data," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 194, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:eti:dpaper:11072. 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: TANIMOTO, Toko (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rietijp.html .

    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.