Tax incentives and direct support for R&D : what do firms use and why?

The measurement of the effects that public support to private R&D has on R&D investment and output has attracted substantial empirical research in the last decade. The focus of this research has mostly focused on testing for possible crowding out effects. There is virtually no study aiming at understanding how and why these effects may or may not be occurring. In addition, the effects of the two most common tools of public support, direct funding through grants and loans, and tax incentives, have been studied separately. We contribute to existing work by focusing on the determinants of the use by firms of these two mechanisms and their potential link to sources of market failures. We think this is an important step to assess impact estimates. Using firm-level data from the Spanish Community Innovation Survey (CIS), we find that firms that face financial constraints, as well as newly created firms, are less likely to use R&D tax credits and more likely to apply for and obtain direct public funding. We also find that large firms that care about knowledge protection are more likely to apply for and obtain direct funding, while SMEs are more likely to use tax incentives. Our results show that direct funding and tax credits, as currently designed, are not perfect substitutes because firms are heterogeneous, and suggest that from a social perspective, and provided that crowding out effects can be ruled out for both instruments, some combination of both may be preferable to relying on only oneR&D subsidies, R&D tax credits, R&D, CIS, Policy evaluation

Estratègies públiques i privades en R+D+I: una visió global del sistema de R+D+I a Catalunya

En els darrers anys, el creixement global de la productivitat, el factor que impulsa el creixement econòmic a llarg termini, ha estat molt moderat a Catalunya. Diversos factors poden contribuir a explicar-ho, un dels quals és l'evolució de la capacitat d'innovació en el conjunt del sistema econòmic. D'altra banda, la constant evolució de l'entorn econòmic internacional i dels avenços científics i tecnològics accentuen la necessitat de desenvolupar de manera sostinguda la capacitat d'innovar, a tots els països i sectors. Per tant, cal preguntar si les estratègies públiques i privades de recerca, desenvolupament i innovació a Catalunya són les desitjables per assolir un nivell de creixement econòmic sostingut. Identificar els possibles obstacles o colls d'ampolla que frenen el desenvolupament d'aquesta capacitat requereix disposar de bons indicadors dels diferents components del sistema d'innovació, d'un marc d'anàlisi adient i d'evidència empírica. L'objectiu aquí és presentar unes pinzellades sobre l'estat actual dels diferents components del sistema d'innovació a Catalunya i identificar-ne alguns reptes.In the last few years, overall global productivity has fallen particularly in Catalonia. Many factors can contribute to explaining this, and one of them is the evolution of innovation capacity in the economic system overall. On the other hand, the evolution of the international economy leads to a situation where innovation in all countries and industries became necessary. Hence, one must wonder whether the public and private research, development and innovation strategies in Catalonia are capable of generating a high level of economic growth. Productivity problems where inefficacy may arise must be indentified in order to reduce it. This article intends to provide some ideas on the innovation system in Catalonia

Estratègies públiques i privades en R+D+I: una visió global del sistema de R+D+I a Catalunya

En els darrers anys, el creixement global de la productivitat, el factor que impulsa el creixement econòmic a llarg termini, ha estat molt moderat a Catalunya. Diversos factors poden contribuir a explicar-ho, un dels quals és l'evolució de la capacitat d'innovació en el conjunt del sistema econòmic. D'altra banda, la constant evolució de l'entorn econòmic internacional i dels avenços científics i tecnològics accentuen la necessitat de desenvolupar de manera sostinguda la capacitat d'innovar, a tots els països i sectors. Per tant, cal preguntar si les estratègies públiques i privades de recerca, desenvolupament i innovació a Catalunya són les desitjables per assolir un nivell de creixement econòmic sostingut. Identificar els possibles obstacles o colls d'ampolla que frenen el desenvolupament d'aquesta capacitat requereix disposar de bons indicadors dels diferents components del sistema d'innovació, d'un marc d'anàlisi adient i d'evidència empírica. L'objectiu aquí és presentar unes pinzellades sobre l'estat actual dels diferents components del sistema d'innovació a Catalunya i identificar-ne alguns reptes.In the last few years, overall global productivity has fallen particularly in Catalonia. Many factors can contribute to explaining this, and one of them is the evolution of innovation capacity in the economic system overall. On the other hand, the evolution of the international economy leads to a situation where innovation in all countries and industries became necessary. Hence, one must wonder whether the public and private research, development and innovation strategies in Catalonia are capable of generating a high level of economic growth. Productivity problems where inefficacy may arise must be indentified in order to reduce it. This article intends to provide some ideas on the innovation system in Catalonia

The Impact of Participation in R&D Programs on R&D Partnerships

Research and innovation partnerships involving firms or firms and public research organizations (PROs) have been increasing over the last twenty years in OECD countries. In this paper we present empirical evidence about the impact of government sponsored R&D programs on firms' partnership strategies related to R&D. Using a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms we estimate the effects of receiving public support on the probability that firms set up an R&D partnership with a PRO or a partnerhsip with other firms that are suppliers or customers. Controling for the endogeneity of participation in R&D support programs, we find that (i) the choice of private-private and of public-private partnerships is associated with different firm characteristics, and (ii) public support encourages directly or indirectly both types of cooperation, but the impact on public-private partnerships is larger. Results suggest that R&D cooperation is affected by market failures, and that public programs subsidizing industryscience links trigger a behavioral change in firms' R&D strategic partnerships

Do voice and social information contribute to changing views about rent control policy?

Citizens’ ability to make informed and thoughtful choices when voting for policy proposals rests on their awareness of and access to accurate information about the costs and benefits that each proposal entails. We study whether specific social factors affect the disposition to drop a misconception, the belief that rent control increases the availability of affordable housing. We design an on–line experiment to test whether giving voice, aggregate social information and disaggregate social information increase the effect of a video explaining the evidence on the consequences of rent control policies. While voice and aggregate social information do not have an additional effect relative to a control group that is shown the same video, supplying disaggregate social has an additional impact on updating beliefs. Furthermore, we find that changes in beliefs widely translate into intended voting and recommending the video. Finally, although ideological position and a zero–sum mentality are correlated with the initial misconception, these two factors do not thwart the disposition to update beliefs after receiving experts’ information

Tax incentives and direct support for R&D : what do firms use and why?

The measurement of the effects that public support to private R&D has on R&D investment and output has attracted substantial empirical research in the last decade. The focus of this research has mostly focused on testing for possible crowding out effects. There is virtually no study aiming at understanding how and why these effects may or may not be occurring. In addition, the effects of the two most common tools of public support, direct funding through grants and loans, and tax incentives, have been studied separately. We contribute to existing work by focusing on the determinants of the use by firms of these two mechanisms and their potential link to sources of market failures. We think this is an important step to assess impact estimates. Using firm-level data from the Spanish Community Innovation Survey (CIS), we find that firms that face financial constraints, as well as newly created firms, are less likely to use R&D tax credits and more likely to apply for and obtain direct public funding. We also find that large firms that care about knowledge protection are more likely to apply for and obtain direct funding, while SMEs are more likely to use tax incentives. Our results show that direct funding and tax credits, as currently designed, are not perfect substitutes because firms are heterogeneous, and suggest that from a social perspective, and provided that crowding out effects can be ruled out for both instruments, some combination of both may be preferable to relying on only oneThis work would not have ben possible without the support of several institutions: the Instituto de Estudios Fiscales (Busom and Corchuelo), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Martínez Ros, project ECO2009-08308 and Busom, project ECO2009-10003) and Junta de Extremadura (Corchuelo, project IB10013

Do voice and social information contribute to changing views about rent control policy?

Citizens’ ability to make informed and thoughtful choices when voting for policy proposals rests on their awareness of and access to accurate information about the costs and benefits that each proposal entails. We study whether specific social factors affect the disposition to drop a misconception, the belief that rent control increases the availability of affordable housing. We design an on–line experiment to test whether giving voice, aggregate social information and disaggregate social information increase the effect of a video explaining the evidence on the consequences of rent control policies. While voice and aggregate social information do not have an additional effect relative to a control group that is shown the same video, supplying disaggregate social has an additional impact on updating beliefs. Furthermore, we find that changes in beliefs widely translate into intended voting and recommending the video. Finally, although ideological position and a zero–sum mentality are correlated with the initial misconception, these two factors do not thwart the disposition to update beliefs after receiving experts’ information

Innovation, public support and productivity in Colombia

We investigate the association between perceived barriers to innovation and the allocation of public support for innovation in manufacturing and service industries in Colombia, as well as the potential heterogeneity of returns to innovation across the firm-level productivity distribution. We extend the CDM recursive system by including an equation for the allocation of direct support and using quantile regression methods to estimate the productivity equation. We find some differences across manufacturing and service industries. Financing constraints are correlated with obtaining public support in manufacturing and in some services, but in knowledge intensive services (KIS) barriers associated with regulations are more significant. The introduction of innovations increases mostly the productivity of firms below the median of the productivity distribution, especially in services. Increasing human capital would boost productivity of firms in all industries, providing support to the hypothesis that human capital is indeed a bottleneck for productivity growth across the board in Colombia. We conclude that addressing factors that hinder innovation by low productivity firms in all service industries could significantly contribute to increasing productivity and reduce its dispersion