Public investment in R&D in reaction to economic crises: A longitudinal study for OECD countries

Arbeitspapier

The paper investigates the reaction of public R&D spending on economic crises. We are interested in two counteracting motives: On the one hand, public R&D spending can be seen as a means to fight the crisis, and governments may decide to increase their R&D budgets. On the other hand, a crisis reduces public income and urges governments to cut spending, which may negatively affect public R&D budgets. Using panel data from 26 OECD countries over the period 1995 to 2015, we investigate how public R&D expenditure changes over the business cycle for different types of government R&D expenditure. On average, we find evidence for a strong pro-cyclical effect on public R&D investments. But country heterogeneity matters. Whereas European innovation leaders and non-EU countries pursue a counter-cyclical strategy, innovation followers and moderate innovators behave pro-cyclical. This leads to an increasing innovation gap in Europe. Short-run and long-run financing conditions (budget surplus and government debt levels) also significantly affect public R&D spending. However, there is no evidence that economic crises systematically affect the composition of public R&D spending along different thematic areas or by beneficiaries.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: ZEW Discussion Papers ; No. 18-005

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: Infrastructures; Other Public Investment and Capital Stock ; Crisis Management ; National Budget; Budget Systems
• Thema: public R&D expenditure ; economic crisis ; OECD ; panel data

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Pellens, Maikel ; Peters, Bettina ; Hud, Martin ; Rammer, Christian ; Licht, Georg
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW)
• (wo): Mannheim
• (wann): 2018

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/174863
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-446032
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:42 MEZ