R&D subsidies to start-ups: Effective drivers of patent activity and employment growth?

Arbeitspapier

The present paper investigates the effectiveness of R&D subsidies given to start-ups. Taking an aggregate view rather than evaluating a single program, we estimate the impact of R&D subsidies on start-ups' employment growth and their patent output. A unique data set on start-ups in the East German county of Thuringia allows us to focus on those start-ups that conduct R&D within the first three business years. We conduct propensity score matching to address the selection bias between subsidized and non-subsidized start-ups. We find that R&D subsidies lead to an increase in employment growth of about 66%. Furthermore, subsidized start-ups show a 2.8 times higher patent output. These estimates provide evidence for the additionality of R&D subsidies within the first three business years. Moreover, our analysis points to the special group of academic spin-offs which excels in the novelty of business ideas and patent activity. For some of these high-tech start-ups, no non-subsidized counterparts can be found. This might be attributed to the policy focus on academic spin-offs, which has led to a successful targeting of R&D support schemes.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: Jena Economic Research Papers ; No. 2009,027

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Technological Change: Government Policy ; Entrepreneurship ; National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: General ; Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
• Thema: R&D subsidies ; start-ups ; policy evaluation ; Forschungssubvention ; Unternehmensgründung ; Wirtschaftspolitische Wirkungsanalyse ; Patent ; Beschäftigungseffekt ; Schätzung ; Neue Bundesländer ; Deutschland

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Cantner, Uwe ; Kösters, Sarah
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics
• (wo): Jena
• (wann): 2009

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/31717
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:43 MEZ