UNU-MERIT Working Papers

Working Paper #2019-036

The effects of R&D subsidies and publicly performed R&D on business R&D: A survey

Thomas Ziesemer #2019-036 PDF

This literature review shows that a majority of studies finds
complementarity of R&D subsidies and tax credits with private R&D
expenditures. A non-negligible minority finds incomplete crowding out.
Full crowding out is found only for small parts of the respective
samples or small sub-sectors of the economy under consideration.
Education R&D and publicly performed R&D stimulate private R&D according
to a small literature. We focus on the exceptions from these dominant
results. The controversies concern firm size, interaction of policy
instruments, and effectiveness of parts of publicly performed R&D. There
are important suggestions for future research derived from our
literature review: (i) use of dynamic models with adequate time lags,
(ii) explaining effects of country and firm heterogeneity.

Keywords
  • Research & development
  • business R&D
  • subsidies
  • public R&D
JEL codes
  • H25
  • O38

Cite this as

APA 7th ed.

Ziesemer, T. (2019). The effects of R&D subsidies and publicly performed R&D on business R&D: A survey (UNU-MERIT Working Paper No. 2019-036). UNU-MERIT. https://unu-merit.nl/publications/working-papers/abstract/?id=8325

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