Paper 17
Paper 17
To cite this article: Isabel Busom (2000): An Empirical Evaluation of The Effects of R&D Subsidies, Economics of
Innovation and New Technology, 9:2, 111-148
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AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION
OF THE EFFECTS OF R&D SUBSIDIES
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Rgd> subsidies are a common tool of technology policy, but little is known about the effects
they have on the behavior of firms. This paper presents evidence on the effects that R&D sub-
sidies have on the R&D effort of recipients. and on the probability that a firm will participate
in a propun granting R&D subsidies. The empirical model consists of a system of equations:
a participation equation; and an R&D effort equation. Endogeneity of public funding is con-
trolled for. Estimates are obtained with a cross-saction sample of Spanish firms. The main
findings are that: 1) small firms are more likely to obtain a subsidy than large firms, probably
reflecting one of the public agency's gods; 2) overall, public funding induces more private
effort, but for some firms (30% of participants) full crowding out effects cannot be ruled out,
and 3) firm size remains related to effort. whether or not a firm gets public funding.
1. INTRODUCTION
policy tool are the following. The first issue concerns the analysis of who
are the participants in a program: What types of firms end up getting pub-
lic subsidies? To what extent does the observed r d t agree with the pub-
lic agency's intended goals? The second issue refers to how receiving a
subsidy affects a firm's behavior with respect 0(9 R&D decisions: does the
firm increase its R&D effort or does public financing crowd out private
financing, partially or completely? Are there interaction effects between a
firm's participation in a public R&D program and its R8cD effort? Does
the type of product market competition matter equally, whether participat-
ing or not? Finally, the third question is in a way the final test of the effec-
tiveness of the policy: how does the productivity of firmsreceiving R&D
subsidies change (a direct effect) and what is the impact on the productiv-
ity of other firms (the i n k t or spillover effect) and on consumers?
This paper addresses the first NO, not having enough information in the
data used here to address the third. However, because they are related
issues it is worthwhile to comment briefly om the evidence available so far.
The relationship between publicly funded R&D and productivity at the
firm or industry level has been addressed in studies by Griliches (1986),
Griliches and Lichtenberg (1984). Cunh (1984), and Hall and Mairesse
(1995). These authors use production function models to estimate and test
the effects of publicly provided R&D funding on the productivity of firms
receiving it. In general, very small or non-significant effects were found.
The alternative dual approach is followed by Nadhi and Marnuneas (1994,
* There are a number of recent empirical studies, closely related to the endogenous growth
literatme, that focus on the effect of public and private R&D on growth at the aggregate level.
Lichtenberg (1992) finds, using aggregate data for several countries, that government funded
research has a much lower marginal ptoduct than privately funded r e m h . Park (1995) pro-
vides additional alferences to this literatwe. However, to umderstartdhow and why public and
private RBtl) have an effect on growth requires an analysis at the decision-maker level, that
is, firms and public agencies. Kauko (1996), Mowery (1995) and Capron (1992) provide a
review of studies at a disaggregate level.
t Work evaluating similar R&D policy tools is found in Hail (1993). on tax credits in the
USA, or Folster (1992) on subsidies to encourage cooperative RBrH) in Sweden.
R&D SUBSIDES 113
1995). who estimate cost and factor demand functions that depend on pub-
licly financed M D capital and infrastructures. Using two-digit indus-
try-level data, they do find significant positive effects of public R&D
capital on the cost structure of industries but also find that these effects
vary over time and across industries. As pointed out in these and other
studies, more attention has to be paid to the composition of R&D, to the
dynamic structure of effects, to measurement of spillovers, and to the
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* Scon uses a sample of 3388 line of business observations corresponding to 437 U.S.
firms; Holemans and Sleuwaegen a sample of 236 0b~ervation~ of Belgian firms and
Antonelli a sample of 83 Italian firms. Levin and Reiss use industry-level data (20 indusuies.
3 years). Klene and Moen use 816 observations of line of business data for high tech sectors
in Norway.
t Lichtenberg (1984) used NSF firm-level panel data with 991 observations. His 1987 and
1988 work is based on a panel of 187 finns observed for 6 years (1979-1984).
114 ISABEL BUSOM
In most public R&D promotion programs a iirm has to apply for a subsidy
in order to get one. Then the public agency has to decide whether to give it
or not. There are two decisions involved, one by the firm and one by the
public agency. Together these decisions give rise to the participation status
of the firm:participant or non-participant in the program. Conditional on
obtaining or not obtaining public funding, a iirm then decides how much
R&D effort to make, in terms of expenditure, personnel or type of project
(i-e., process or product, basic research content). If this is the process gen-
erating the observations, an empirical model to represent it will include
four structural equations, the first two b e i i a sort of demand and supply
equations for subsidies, and the third and fourth being the R&D effort
decision if participating and if not participating respectively. These equa-
tions are:
A* = f,(Z. U) (1)
G* = fg(W, V ) (2)
tors, some related to the social interest of the R&D project, and some to
the estimated ability of the firm to carry it out. Equations (3) and (4) cap
ture the total R&D effort made by a firm, usually measured by R&D
expenditure or R&D personnel.
To the researcher, A* and G* are unobservable. yl' is observed only for
participating firms; y< is observed only for non-participants.* These two
equations will allow for differences in the coefficients associated to
explanatory variables under each pdcipation regime. These differences
may arise as a result of the policy. For instance, fmn size is often found to
be positively related to R&D effort, but for firms receiving an R&D sub-
sidy, size may not be a relevant factor to explain effort. These type of
effects can be tested within this framework.
Because of the unobservable nature of the profitability of a decision for
each agent, the model above is in fact a latent variable model, where only the
qualitative outcome of the decisions is observed. gf we know whether a firm
applies or not, we can define a binary variable If that equals 1 if the firm
applies. We may observe whether the agency awards the subsidy or not,
which can in turn be translated into a binary variable Ig. The observation
mechanism gives rise to a discrete choice model for participation in the R&D
program and to an effort model with endogenous switching. The complete
suuctural model includes in addition to equations (1)-(4), the following:
> 0 and I = 0 otherwise
If = 1 if A* (5)
Ig = 1if G* > 0 and I = 0 otllerwise (6)
If we only observe who is a participant in the program (a case of limited
observability) and who is not, then(5) and (6) collapse into
I = If*&= g (Z,W , u. v ) (7)
where 1=1implies that a firm has applied for and obtained a subsidy.
* This frameworkis very similar to that used in evaluating the impact of training programs
on wages; see for example Heckman and Robb (1985).
R&D SUBSIDIES 117
Equations (1) and (2). and their observable counterparts (5) and (6) or
(7),are a discrete choice model of participation or selection equation and
may be estimated with probit or logit multivariate models. Equations (3)
and (4) may be estimated for each subsample (of participants and non-par-
ticipants) correcting for endogenous self-selection.
To sum up, this model allows for testing the public agency's allocation
rule, inferring additional effects of the policy and estimating the hypothet-
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3. THE DATA
The data used consists of a sample of 154 Spanish firms that were con-
ducting R&D activities in 1988.75 (45%) of which received public fund-
ing for their R&D projects through the Centro para el Desarrollo
Tecnol6gico e Industrial (CDTI), an agency of the Spanish Ministry of
Industry: That year, the CDTI granted subsidized loans to 213 projects of
a total of 541 applications (a 39% approval rate). Some firms had more
than one project approved. According to CI)TI's annual report, on average
public funding amounted to 39 % of total R&D investment for approved
projects (CDTI,1988).
Firms in the sample were asked three sets of questions. First, standard
questions related to firm characteristics such as size, export volume, indus-
try,firm's age, ownership.
Second, some questions concerning R&D activities such as R&D
expenditure (total expenditure, including the subsidy if received), R&D
personnel, availability of public funding, patents obtained in the previous
10 years, type of research, sources of ideas for R&D projects. And finally,
questions related to strategic attitudes or behavior of firms in the product
market or with respect to R&D. Most of the answers to the last type of
questions were finally coded as binary variables. Table I provides the defi-
nition of the variables constructed from the survey.
Firms could apply for two possible sources of public funding: from
national programs or from European-level programs. Eighty three firms in
* For a description of data sources, see Appendix I.
118 ISABEL BUSOM
the sample (about 54 %) declared having applied for a national R&D sub-
sidy, and 75 obtained it* As for European-level programs, 47 firms
applied for and 40 obtained funding. Only 15 % of firms declared having
both types of public funding. However, we do not have information for
firms in our sample about how many projects did a firm submit, nor of the
magnitude of the subsidy received.
Some information was obtained on how is R & D done. Main sources of
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ideas for their projects and reaction to a rival's W&D activities were issues
of particular interest, the first as an indicator of possible knowledge spillo-
vers, the second as one of strategic behavior. A Binn's own patents were an
important source of ideas for 56 % of firms, but even more (63 %) consid-
ered rivals' patents or licenses or their rivals' products to be an important
source of ideas. Almost all firms considered general sources of informa-
tion (Universities or research centers, scientific and technical publications)
quite or very important. The existence of knowledge spillovers in research
ideas will be proxied by binary variables constructed on the basis of these
questions?
In an attempt to obtain information on firms' strategic behavior in the
product market, firms were asked about their pricing strategy.* Most firms
(44%) declared to choose prices and then adjust production to demand,
and about 29 % declared to set production plans first, and determine the
price afterward. Some firms were regulated, and a specific binary variable
was constructed for this case. As for R&D specific strategies, 58 % of
firms would accelerate their own R&D effort if they found out a rival firm
was doing similar R&D rather than cooperate or stop. Finally, all firms
said RBrD played a very importaut role in the firm's strategy in the long
run, but only half of them thought R&D was important in the short run.
The rejection rate in the sample is very small relative to that in the population; CDTI
reports rejection rates of about 60 % of the submitted proposals for that year. It is possible
that some firms that were rejected declared not having applied This will have implications
for estimation.
t These are knowledge spillovers a firm benefits from. We do not have a measure for
*
extent of appropriabilityof the firm's own R&D.
Firms were asked in particular whether they usually set prices and then production was
adjusted to demand @rice competition), or vice versa Firms following the first rule may be
interpreted to be Bertrand competitors, while those following the second rule would be
Cournot cornpetiton.
R&D SUBSIDIES
Subsidies
Cdti =1 if a firm received a subsidy from CDTI,0 otherwise.
Qmtity =1 if firm declared to make production plans and then adjust prices ,
Tables 11 and KII show descriptive statistics for the sample, which con-
tains 147 firms after those with missing values were deleted. The sample is
biased towards large firms, thereby producing high means for some varia-
bles (see Appendix I).
Regulat
R&D Roeess Monopoly
Patent Other
Royalty Frival
Ideaext Shortrun
Ideariv
Cooperate IndustrJt
Rasic Chemical
Development Electronics
Rocess Ekpipment
Roduct Energy
Senices
Ownemhip Traditional'
Public Other1
Foreign
a It includes several industries: food textile, steel and metallic products.
The data described above may have been generated by the process out-
lined in section 2. Given the available information and the model, the
dependent variables will be the following: application for an R&D subsidy
(equation (S)), granting a subsidy (equation (6)) and R&D effort (equa-
tions (3) and (4)). Some hypothesis may now be formulated as to which
variables enter the vectors of explanatory variables Z, W, and X,.
122 ISABEL BUSOM
wedge between private and social returns. The interaction with market
structure is complex, but theoretical models of patent races do predict it
will affect R&D activity. One example is found in Delbono and Denicolo
(1990), who develop a model predicting that firms competing in quantities
in the product market will spend less in R&D than firms competing in
prices. Other factors that may affect R&D investment decisions are liquid-
ity constraints (Hall et al, 1998), type of ownership (Veugelers and
Vanden-Houten (1990) provide a model and empirical evidence that multi-
national firms may lead to reduced domestic R&D), and the extent to
which a firm sells its products in foreign markets. Finally, differences in
technological opportunity and in expected demand growth may explain
interindustxy differences in R&D effort.
Consequently, total employment, strategy and ownership indicators,
share of exports over total sales and industry d d e s will be included in
the effort decision. In addition, the indicator of spillovers the firm receives
from others and the previous patents, measuring experience in RBrD will
be added. The sign to be expected of the spillover indicator is ambiguous:
on one hand, benefiting from others' ideas may lower the h ' s costs of
innovating, but on the other it may trigger more projects, and thus more
effort.
Tuming now to the application decision, it would seem that since all
fums in the sample conduct R&D activities, a d the eligibility conditions
set by the public agency do not appear too restrictive ex ante in Spain, all
firms would be expected to apply for a subsidy, provided there are no fixed
costs associated with applying.* The benefits from obtaining a subsidy
need not be equal for all firms, however. If there are fixed costs associated
with research, small firms will presumably be less able to finance them
* This may be true for firms already conducting R&D. but firms not doing R&D may have
to incur expenses just to present a good proposal, and the expected subsidy may be too low
for them to make applying worthwhile.
R&D SUBSIDIES 123
and more eager to participate in the subsidy program. Also firms that per-
ceive R&D to be an important strategic variable for competing with rivals
even in the short run* and iirms that compete in international markets
(exporters) may also profit relatively more from RBd) subsidies than other
firms. Finally, firms with fully domestic capital are more likely to apply,
because those with foreign capital participation may benefit from R&D
conducted in another location, and their R8cD activities in Spain may be
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* Managen' perceptions about the impoxtance of R&D in the short run may explain differ-
ential behavior across firms.These different perceptions may reflect to some extent differ-
ences in human capital.
t Some variables related to the type of research done (product or process, extent of basic
content, duration of RBtD projects, whether to apply for other sources of public R&D fund-
ing, such as EC Framework Program or Eureka) are available as well for this data set. They
may be jointly determined with the decision to apply for a subsidy. An additional equation for
each of them wuld be added to the system of equations above. However, because of the lim-
ited number of observations and of exogenous variables a more complex model is not esti-
mated here.
124 ISABEL BUSOM
tions), or in some research fields (i.e., defense, health) where a higher gap
between private and social returns is assumed t~ exist*
In 1988 the CDTI financed projects in three broad areas: production
technology (information and communications technology, space, microe-
lectronics, new materials, robotics and automation), quality of life (toxi-
cology, pharmaceuticals, immunology, biotechnology), and natural
resources and agriculture (including food technology). The information
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According to Navas (1984). the ability of the project to generate secondary technological
effects was also considered. This suggest that spillovers m y play a role in policy decisions.
R&D SUBSIDIES 125
Equations (5) and (6) of the model outlined in section 2 determine the par-
ticipation status of each h, with four possible outcomes. Since for a
given firm Ig is not observed unless If equals one, three outcomes are pos-
sible in theory. But the information contained in this sample is even more
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limited, because too few iirms declare applying and not obtaining a sub-
sidy. So in fact the reasonable equation to estimate is (7),the participation
status.*
I = If*& = g (Z.W, e )
where I = 1 iff A* > 0 and G* > 0 (the firm has a public subsidy), and I = 0
otherwise. There are two types of observations, participants and non-par-
ticipants, and it will be assumed that the probability of being a participant
is given by the bivariate normal density. The structural parameters associ-
. ated to vectors Z, W could still be estimated provided that identification
conditions hold. However, the particular configuration of the binary
explanatory variables may generate identification problemst as it turns
out to happen with this data set. Therefore, a simple univariate probit
model is estimated. This equation may then be interpreted as a reduced
form, where coefficients of explanatory variables capture the net effect of
each variable on the final status, participation. What is lost is the ability to
identify separately the different weight a particular variable may have on
the firm's application decision and on the agency's rule.
Estimation results are shown in Table IV,Appendix II. The first column
of coefficients shows the estimates obtained for a model with all explana-
tory variables, and the second column shows the.estimates of a restricted
model where non-significant variables have been dropped. The third col-
umn presents the marginal effect that each variable included in the
restricted model has on the probability of being a participant, that is,
6(Pr(I=1))/6xj = b *f(x'b) where x is the vector of explanatory variables
and f(-) the density function evaluated at the mean of vector x. Columns 4
and 5 show the results obtained when the variable SHORTRUN is
* This is one of the partial obscrvability cases discussed in Poirier (1980).
t Meng and Schmidt (1985) illustrate the implications that inclusion of b i explanatory
variables has for identification and estimation in discrete choice models.
126 ISABEL BUSOM
iate probit model to explain the joint probability of having domestic and
European funding wiis estimated. Because results suggest that the two
types of participation were independent at the time, consistent estimates
for participation in each program can be obtained by estimating a univari-
ate probit model for each.* Results obtained with the univariate probit
model to explain European-level participation are shown in the last col-
umn of Table IV. They suggest that contrary to the domestic program, the
probability of participating was positively related to firm size and that
experience related variables were not relevant at the time. The negative role
of foreign capital ownership is observed also in this case.'lnterestingly finns
that declared to compete in prices were less likely to participate. However,
the overall predictive capacity of the model is low, as more than half of par-
ticipants are missclassified by the model. Because the number of firms par-
ticipating in Ewpean R&D programs is small in our sample and because of
the novelty of these programs for Spanish finns (Spain had joined the EU
only in 1986), it may be difficult to find systematic patterns of behavior.
Results obtained here must therefore be interpreted with caution.
Next step involves estimating R&D effort for participants and for non-par-
ticipants, taking into account that group membership is not random. The
purpose of estimation is to provide evidence regarding two questions:
1) does participation induce a higher R&D effort than would have been
made otherwise? and 2) does participation make the firm's choice of R&D
effort less conditioned by factors such as f h n size?
* Independence may not hold in posterior years, though. As information about Euro-
pean-level programs improves over time, and as the national agency encourages firms to par-
ticipate in them. firms with expcrieoce in participating in the national program may be more
likely to do so.
128 ISABEL BUSOM
tures are total spending by the fum, which in the case of participants
includes phe subsidy received. The magnitude of the subsidy itself is not
known. Explanatory variables will once again capture the effect they have
on private effort plus the effect they have on the magnitude of the subsidy.
Because some firms received funding though participation in European
level R&D programs, an additional dummy variable (EUROPEAN)is
introduced to control for this fact, under the assumption that this variable
and the error term are uncorrelated. Each equation is estimated by four
procedures. By ordinary least squares, using the whole sample of firms,
and including a participation binary variable (CDTI), as in previous stud-
ies. This is the most restrictive specification, since it imposes equality of
coefficients for both groups of firms, as well as exogeneity of participa-
tion. The second procedure consists of splitting the sample, not imposing
equality of coefficients; but estimating by OU,thus imposing exogeneity
of participation. The third consists of using Heckman's two step procedure
to c o r m for endogenous sample selection; this will allow testing for exo-
geneity of participation.t Finally both equations are estimated by maxi-
mum likelihood, jointly with the participation equation.
Tables V through 8 in Appendix I show the. re~u1t.s.~ Columns 1,2 and 3
in each table show that running OLS on the whole sample of firms with the
participation dummy as explanatory variable, will generate biased esti-
mates because it imposes the restriction that the coefficients of the explan-
atory variables are the same for both types of fums, when this hypothesis
* Sales were not used because they were obtained as intervals in the original survey.
t The selection model is:
yl=bl'x+rl,ol&+el
yo=~x+rboo&+~
where ri, is is the correlation between the error term in each effort equation and the error term
in the participation or selection equation, and & is the inverse Mill's ratio.
$ Four firms were excluded from the sample, as they behaved as outliers and results were
sensitive to their inclusion.
R&D SUBSIDIES 129
should be rejected.* This is so for all measures of R&D effort used. Once
different behavior is dowed for both types of firms, there are no sharp dif-
ferences between OLS estimates and Heckman's method estimates in the
expenditure equations. The coefficient for lambda in either of the sample
selection equations is not significant, suggesting that the hypothesis of no
selection bias cannot be rejected. Maximum likelihood estimates are very
close to the sample selection model, but there are some differences in esti-
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mated standard errors. The fit is in general better for R&D personnel equa-
tions than for RBd).expenditure (especially in case of the relative effort
equation), and better for participants than for non-participants.
Participants and non-participants differ in the way explanatory variables
affect total R&D effort. Because the hypothesis of selection bias based on
unobservables has been rejected, participants do not have an unobserved
comparative advantage at doing R&D (are not more likely to have higher
R&D effort because of unobserved factors) relative to non participants.
Differences in coefficients may be partly attributed to the public agency's
funding decision.
In absence of public funding, R&D expenditure is explained by firm size
(with a positive but smaller than one coefficient in the level equation, and
a negative sign in the relative effort equation) and by being either in the
chemicaYpharmaceutical industry or in the electricdelectmnic industries.
None of the remaining variables is found to have significant effects (expe-
rience, capital ownership, or strategic and spillover variables). These
results are consistent through all estimation methods, except for the case of
R&D personnel for non participants, where industry variables are some-
what sensitive to specification.
Participants show a different pattern. There are two main differences.
The first is that firms in the equipment and services to h s industries
spend more relative to participants from other industries. These firms are
equally likely as firms in traditional industries to be participants, but once
they are, they may be getting higher subsidies. The second difference is
that having obtained patents in the past makes firms spend more on R&D,
as do firms mostly oriented to the domestic markett A possible interpre-
* A Chow-test leads to rejection of the null hypothesis of equality of slopes in equations
for participants and non-mcipants.
t The share of e x p m has a negative sign. This result is conhary to what was expected,
but other studies using larger samples of Spanish finns (2400observations) have obtained
this result. See Labeaga and Martinez-Ros (1994).
130 ISABEL BUSOM
tation is that the public agency may prefer subsidizing this type of firms,
which may make sense from the perspective the welfare of domestic con-
sumers.
There is some evidence that participants that declared to set production
plans first and then adjust prices spend less, in line with the prediction of
the theoretical model by Delbono and Deniwlo, but this doesn't hold
across dl estimations. The role of firm size on RBrD expenditure remains
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unchanged, the sign being negative in the relative effort equations, but
with a slightly smaller absolute value. Other strategic variables and exist-
ence of spillovers were not found significant in any of the equations.* As
a final remark, participating in a European-level R&D program does not
seem to have led to increased expenditure.
When effort is measured by R&D personnel, the same basic regularities
appear. No evidence of selection bias is found for participants, and relative
effort decreases with an increase in firm size or in export share, and
increases with previous patenting activity. Participating firms in the chem-
ical and electronic industries increase their R W personnel, although not
expenditure. Non-participants allocation of R&D personnel seems to be
mostly determined by firm size and industry.
Crowding out occurs when public funding drives pPivate funding out par-
tially or completely. Complete crowding out takes place when a recipient
firm would have privately spent the same total mount for a given project
It indicates that firms would have made the R&D effort anyway and that
private returns were high enough. Partial crowding out occurs when total
effort increases, but the private contribution is smaller than if the firm had
been on its own.
Testing the presence of crowding out effects involves constructing a
counterfactual for r&ipient firms, which will be done using the estimation
of effort of non-participants. If data on privately financed R&D effort are
available, then the extent of partial or complete crowding-out effects could
be estimated for each participant by computing an estimate of its expected
* In previous work with this same data set (Busom 1993) it was found that the measure of
spillovers affected negatively the probability of a firm doing basic research. and positively
the probability of doing process innovations.
private effort as a participant, using the coefficients of the "Participants"
column (ylpredicted = E{y1[I1)) and comparing it to an estimate of its
expected potential effort, had the firm not been a pdcipant
(Yopotential - {Yo (I1)) ,obtained with the coefficients of the "Non-Par-
* Non-significant variables, except for Quantity, were dropped Quantity was kept because
it bewme significant, witb a negative sign.
132 ISABEL BUSOM
Few studies have used econometric modeling to test the systematic effects
that different technology policy tools have on firms; yet ex-post evaluation
of any policy at the microeconomic level is a necessary step for checking
its effectiveness and for detecting unanticipated effects. Using a sample of
Spanish b s , where half of them received public subsidies for R&D, this
paper provides evidence on some factors explaining participation in a
domestic R&D subsidy program, and on the effects that participation has
on R&D effort. Although the information available in this sample does not
allow for separate estimation of the application decision by a lirm and the
R&D SUBSIDIES 133
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134 ISABELBUSOM
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APPENDIX IB
The data originated in a survey conducted in 1988 for a report on the par-
ticipation of Spanish firms in European research programs. Researchers at
the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and the Hnstitut dYAnalisiEconom-
ica (CSIC) designed the questionnaire. The sample was designed to con-
tain firms active in R&D and/or technology acquisition, including among
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them firms that had participated in some public R&D program. The
national public agency, CDTI, provided a list of applicants for subsidies,
from which a random sample was drawn. The rest of the sample was drawn
from listings of firmsdoing R&D. The sample is not meant to be representa-
tive of the whole population of Spanish h s , because a l l firmsin this Sam-
ple conduct R&D, while at that time at most 20 % of all Spanish firms did
so. This research focuses on the sub-population of R&D doers. In the sample
compiled by the Institute Nacional de Estadistica in 1988, which consisted
of 1232 firms doing R&D, about 19 % had more than 500 employees
(large), 34 % between 100 and 499 (medium), and 47 % less than one hun-
dred employees (small).In the sample used here, h o s t 50 % of the firms
are large, 20 % are medium and 30 % are small firms. Large firms are thus
over represented in our sample.
In addition to the descriptive statistics shown in Tables 11 and IJI for the
whole sample, it is of interest to compare the sub-samples of participants
and non-participants in the R&D program, as the second sub-sample will be
used to construct estimates of the potential RBLB effort of participants.
Participants Non-Participants
Total employment
Age
Patents
Exports share (%)
RBtD SUBSIDIES
APPENDIX II
TABLE IV Detembants of the Probability of Participation
Participation in the National RdrD subsidy program
Participmion
(-0.1) (-0.2)
Patents 0.44 0.46 0.18 0.45 0.18 0.05
(3.7) (4.0) (3.9) (0.4)
Public 0.64 0.55 0.22 0.67 0.27 0.44
(1.7) (1.5) (1.8) (1.3)
Foreign -0.91 -0.76 -0.30 -0.79 -0.32 -0.87
(-2.9) (-2.7) (-2.8) (-2.6)
Rice 0.31 -0.48
(1.1) (-2.6)
Regul -0.10 0.51
(-0.2) (1.2)
FRival 0.26
(0.3)
Dchemical 0.50 0.50 0.20 -0.20
(1.4) (1.6) (-0.5)
Detronics 0.51 0.51 0.20 0.79
(1.5) (1.5) (2.2)
Dequipment -0.09 0.39
(-0.4) (1.0)
138 ISABEL BUSOM
Participants NOPI-
Pafficipunts AN Participants Non- Participants Parficipants Non- Panicipants
* In this and all remaining tables, standard errors are in parenthesis. One asterisk denotes a 10 % significance level; two asterisks a 5 %.
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RBtD SUBSIDIES
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Participants Non- Participanrs All Participants Non- Participants Participants Non- Participants
(0.30)
Employmt -0.38'.
(0.07)
Exportsh -0.01..
(0.00s)
Patent 0.22'.
(0.08)
Public 0.03
(0.28)
Foreign 0.38
(0.30)
Qquantity -0.37
(0.25)
Ordinary Least Squares Sample Selection Ma*Lnum Likelihood
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Frival
IdeaRiv
Dchemical
Detronics
kquiprnt
Denergy
Dservice
Lambda
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ISABEL BUSOM
TABLE VII Absolute R&D effort: R&D Personnel
Participants Non- pariicipants All Participants Non- Participants Pmicipants Non- Participants
(0.22)
Employmt 0.54"
(0.05)
Exports -0.01.'
(0.005)
Patent 0.19"
(0.07)
Quantity -0.1
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ISABEL BUSOM
TABLE VIII Relative Effort:R&D personneYemployee
Oniinary Least Squans Sample Selection Maximum Liklihood
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Participants Non- Participants All Pam'cipants Non- Panicipanfs Participants Non- Pam'cipants