Financing Innovation: Evidence from R&D Grants

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Howell, Sabrina T.
• 署名单位: New York University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20150808
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 1136-1164
• 关键词: regression discontinuity designs; DEVELOPMENT SUBSIDIES; product market; cash flow; constraints; INVESTMENT; EVOLUTION; stimulate; DYNAMICS

摘要

Governments regularly subsidize new ventures to spur innovation. This paper conducts the first large-sample, quasi-experimental evaluation of R&D subsidies. I use data on ranked applicants to the US Department of Energy's SBIR grant program. An early-stage award approximately doubles the probability that a firm receives subsequent venture capital and has large, positive impacts on patenting and revenue. These effects are stronger for more financially constrained firms. Certification, where the award contains information about firm quality, likely does not explain the grant effect. Instead, the grants are useful because they fund technology prototyping.