Do Tax Incentives Increase Firm Innovation? An RD Design for R&D, Patents, and Spilloverst

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dechezlepretre, Antoine; Einio, Elias; Martin, Ralf; Nguyen, Kieu-Trang; Van Reenen, John
• 署名单位: Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD); University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; VATT Institute for Economic Research; Imperial College London; Northwestern University; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200739
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 486-521
• 关键词: development subsidies; fiscal incentives; market value; IMPACT; POLICY; panel; industry; taxation; credits; MODEL

摘要

We present causal evidence of R&D tax incentives' positive impacts on a firm's own innovation and that of its technological neighbors. Exploiting a change in size-based eligibility thresholds for R&D tax relief, we implement a Regression Discontinuity Design using administrative data. We find significant effects of tax relief on (quality-adjusted) patenting (and R&D) that persist up to seven years, and evidence of R&D spillovers on the innovation of technologically close firms. We can rule out elasticities of patenting with respect to R&D user cost of under 2 at the 5 percent level and show that our large effects are driven by financially constrained treated firms.