IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/iuiwop/0187.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Effective are Government R&D Subsidies: The Empirical Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Fölster, Stefan

    (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN))

Abstract

Government subsidized industrial R & D stands for a large and increasing segment of the total R & D conducted. Yet very little is known about the effectiveness of such subsidies. This paper summarizes the empirical literature concerning direct project subsidies, tax credits, and support for industrial research institutes. This helps to identify what makes government policy effective from the government's perspective and how it affects firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Fölster, Stefan, 1987. "How Effective are Government R&D Subsidies: The Empirical Evidence," Working Paper Series 187, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0187
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifn.se/wfiles/wp/wp187.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Allen, Thomas J. & Hyman, Diane B. & Pinckney, David L., 1983. "Transferring technology to the small manufacturing firm: A study of technology transfer in three countries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 199-211, August.
    2. Tassey, Gregory, 1985. "The technology policy experiment as a policy research tool," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 39-52, February.
    3. Pavitt, K. & Walker, W., 1976. "Government policies towards industrial innovation: a review," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 11-97, January.
    4. repec:bla:scandj:v:86:y:1984:i:2:p:115-30 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Glenn C. Loury, 1979. "Market Structure and Innovation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 93(3), pages 395-410.
    6. Mansfield, Edwin & Schwartz, Mark & Wagner, Samuel, 1981. "Imitation Costs and Patents: An Empirical Study," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 91(364), pages 907-918, December.
    7. Link, Albert N, 1981. "Basic Research and Productivity Increase in Manufacturing: Additional Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 1111-1112, December.
    8. Mansfield, Edwin & Switzer, Lorne, 1985. "The effects of R&D tax credits and allowances in Canada," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 97-107, April.
    9. John W. Kendrick & Beatrice N. Vaccara, 1980. "New Developments in Productivity Measurement and Analysis," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kend80-1.
    10. Zvi Griliches, 1984. "R&D, Patents, and Productivity," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gril84-1.
    11. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Returns to Research and Development Expenditures in the Private Sector," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 49-81, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Henk Folmer & Peter Nukamp, 1987. "Investment Premiums: Expensive but Hardly Effective," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 43-72, February.
    13. Martin L. Weitzman, 1980. "Efficient Incentive Contracts," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(4), pages 719-730.
    14. Toren, Nina & Galni, Dan, 1978. "The determinants of the potential effectiveness of government-supported industrial research institutes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 362-382, October.
    15. Ettlie, John E., 1982. "The commercialization of federally sponsored technological innovations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 173-192, June.
    16. 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.
    17. Roessner, J. David, 1984. "Commercializing solar technology: The government role," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 235-246, August.
    18. John Scott, 1984. "Firm versus Industry Variability in R&D Intensity," NBER Chapters, in: R&D, Patents, and Productivity, pages 233-248, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. 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.
    2. M. Ishaq Nadiri, 1993. "Innovations and Technological Spillovers," NBER Working Papers 4423, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. 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.
    4. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Mairesse, Jacques & Mohnen, Pierre, 2010. "Measuring the Returns to R&D," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1033-1082, Elsevier.
    5. Jacques Mairesse & Mohamed Sassenou, 1991. "R&D Productivity: A Survey of Econometric Studies at the Firm Level," NBER Working Papers 3666, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Veugelers, Reinhilde, 1997. "Internal R & D expenditures and external technology sourcing," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 303-315, October.
    7. Tsai, Kuen-Hung & Wang, Jiann-Chyuan, 2005. "Does R&D performance decline with firm size?--A re-examination in terms of elasticity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 966-976, August.
    8. Charles Bérubé & Marc Duhamel & Daniel Ershov, 2012. "Market Incentives for Business Innovation: Results from Canada," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 47-65, March.
    9. Konstantinos Konstantakis & Panayotis G. Michaelides & Theofanis Papageorgiou, 2014. "Sector size, technical change and stability in the USA (1957-2006): a Schumpeterian approach," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 41(10), pages 956-974, October.
    10. Berghäll, Elina, 2006. "RD and Productivity Growth in Finnish ICT Manufacturing," Discussion Papers 388, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Ejike Udeogu (a) , Uzochukwu Amakom (b) and Shampa Roy-Mukherjee (a), 2021. "Empirical Analysis of an Augmented Schumpeterian Endogenous Growth Model," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 46(1), pages 53-84, March.
    12. Bronwyn H. Hall, 2010. "Measuring the Returns to R&D: The Depreciation Problem," NBER Chapters, in: Contributions in Memory of Zvi Griliches, pages 341-381, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Jones, Charles I & Williams, John C, 2000. "Too Much of a Good Thing? The Economics of Investment in R&D," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 65-85, March.
    14. José Ángel Zúñiga-Vicente & César Alonso-Borrego & Francisco J. Forcadell & José I. Galán, 2014. "Assessing The Effect Of Public Subsidies On Firm R&D Investment: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 36-67, February.
    15. Tang, Jianmin, 2006. "Competition and innovation behaviour," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 68-82, February.
    16. Valdemar Smith & Mogens Dilling-Hansen & Tor Eriksson & Erik Strøjer Madsen, 2004. "R&D and productivity in Danish firms: some empirical evidence," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(16), pages 1797-1806.
    17. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Mairesse, Jacques, 1995. "Exploring the relationship between R&D and productivity in French manufacturing firms," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 263-293, January.
    18. Kafouros, Mario I. & Buckley, Peter J., 2008. "Under what conditions do firms benefit from the research efforts of other organizations?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 225-239, March.
    19. Lim, Kwanghui, 2004. "The relationship between research and innovation in the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries (1981-1997)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 287-321, March.
    20. Bronwyn H. Hall, 2006. "R&D, productivity and market value," IFS Working Papers W06/23, Institute for Fiscal Studies.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Subsidies; R&D; summary;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

    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:hhs:iuiwop:0187. 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: Elisabeth Gustafsson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iuiiise.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.