Subsidizing Start-Ups: Policy Targeting and Policy Effectiveness

Start-up subsidies are a frequently employed policy instrument, the use of which is justified by alleged market failure resulting from positive external effects and capital market imperfections. This article investigates whether the allocation of subsidies reflects a policy focus on addressing these market failure occurrences. However, using survey data from the East German state of Thuringia, logistic regressions reveal a rather random subsidization of start-ups. Furthermore, propensity score matching suggests that subsidized start-ups would have survived and thrived in any case, an indication of deadweight losses of start-up subsidies. The analysis points to serious information problems arising when subsidies should be allocated to remedy market failure. Making the situation even more problematic is that failure to precisely target start-up subsidies is likely to result in market distortions and ineffectiveness.Start-ups, Subsidies, Subsidy allocation, Policy evaluation

Picking the Winner? - Empirical Evidence on the Targeting of R&D Subsidies to Start-ups

This paper investigates the allocation of R&D subsidies given to start-ups. Considering the coexistence of various R&D project schemes, we take an aggregate view and analyze the determinants of the receipt of (any) R&D subsidies within the first three business years of the start-ups. We argue that policymakers and funding authorities follow a strategy of "picking the winner". Analyzing a unique data set of start-ups in the East German state of Thuringia, we conduct logistic regressions and find ambiguous support. R&D subsidies are given to start-ups with innovative business ideas, especially academic spin-offs. On the other hand, the ambitions and the patent stock of the founder(s) do not decide the receipt of R&D subsidies. These insights into the overall allocation of R&D subsidies are important since they have implications for policy effectiveness and efficiency. The implied difficulties of policy targeting fundamentally question the massive subsidization of private R&D.Start-ups, R&D subsidies, Subsidy allocation

Building Winners? An Empirical Evaluation of Public Business Assistance in the Founding Process

This paper investigates economic and subjective effects of public business assistance delivered to nascent entrepreneurs in Germany. Employing cluster analysis, we explore the actual scope and intensity of business assistance used. Then we analyze predictors of take-up and perceived usefulness taking into account the different patterns of utilized assistance. Finally, we assess economic effects by studying subsequent business performance employing propensity score matching. We cannot reveal that business assistance translates into better start-up performance. However, we find that a lack of personal entrepreneurial resources predicts take-up of business assistance in general as well as perceived usefulness of comprehensive business assistance.entrepreneurship, business assistance, policy evaluation, entrepreneurial resources, big five

Policy support for innovative entrepreneurship: an empirical evaluation

Entrepreneurship plays an increasingly prominent role in both academic and policy circles. It is regarded as the driving force behind structural change that links investments in knowledge with economic growth. The increased role of new and small enterprises has led to an increase in entrepreneurship policies aimed at encouraging more people to consider entrepreneurship as an option and act on a business idea. This thesis examines policy measures that are offered to nascent and young entrepreneurs along the founding process, especially public business assistance, financial support schemes and earmarked subsidies for R&D. Data for this study were collected by the Thuringian Founder Study (Thüringer Gründer Studie), an interdisciplinary project on the success and failure of innovative start-ups in the East German state of Thuringia. Standardized in-depth interviews allow conducting propensity score matching which is used to correct for selection bias between assisted and non-assisted start-ups. The thesis argues that having a clear-cut rationale for policy intervention is the only way precise policy targeting becomes possible. Precise policy targeting toward incidences of market failure will direct public funds where they are most needed and thus where they will be most effective and efficient. However, the thesis emphasizes the difficulties of policy targeting toward incidences of market failure (whose existence is controversial in itself). The rationale behind public policy intervention in R&D is the clearest of all those studied in this thesis. Consistently, the empirical analyses provide evidence of the effectiveness of R&D subsidies in inducing additional employment and patent activity

BarKeeper—a versatile web framework to assemble, analyse and manage DNA barcoding data and metadata

1. DNA barcoding aids in rapidly identifying specimens in various contexts by comparing short stretches of DNA to a reference database. Barcoding initiatives generate large reference databases of carefully curated high‐quality sequences to maximize identification success. 2. BarKeeper provides a flexible tool for barcoding initiatives and in the context of phylogenetic studies to foster shared work on large datasets of raw sequence and associated metadata. It is free, open‐source and available as a set of Docker containers for easy setup. After setting it up once, all project members can use it independently of their operating system or location. 3. BarKeeper offers features to collect and manage data and metadata about specimens, taxa and DNA sequences from Sanger sequencing and high‐throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies. It provides excellent flexibility by not being restricted to specific markers or taxon groups. Users can view and edit records and associated metadata while the app assists them by trimming and assembling reads. It automatically checks the quality of generated barcodes with a taxonomy‐based tool and offers a wide range of options for data analysis. Extensive search features allow querying the database for specific groups of records and saving the search results in the user's profile or downloading them in various file formats. 4. BarKeeper combines multiple tools to aid barcoding projects in every step, from a reference taxa list to finished barcode sequences, thereby minimizing the number of laborious, potentially error‐prone manual steps and enabling efficient collaborative workflows