Measuring the cost-effectiveness of an R&D tax credit for the UK
Rachel Griffith,
Stephen Redding and
John van Reenen
Fiscal Studies, 2001, vol. 22, issue 3, 375-399
Abstract:
This paper investigates the economic impact of the government’s proposed new UK R&D tax credit. We measure the benefit of the credit by the effect on value added in the short and long runs. This is simulated from existing econometric estimates of the tax-price elasticity of research and development (R&D) and the effect of R&D on productivity. For the latter, we allow R&D to have an effect on technology transfer (catching up with the technological frontier) as well as innovation (pushing the frontier forward). We then compare the increase in value added to the likely exchequer costs of the programme under a number of scenarios. In the long run, the increase in GDP far outweighs the costs of the tax credit. The short-run effect is far smaller, with value added only exceeding cost if R&D grows at or below the rate of inflation.
Date: 2001
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ifs.org.uk/fs/articles/0047a.pdf (application/pdf)
Related works:
Working Paper: Measuring the Cost Effectiveness of an R&D Tax Credit for the UK (2001) 
Working Paper: Measuring the cost effectiveness of an R&D tax credit for the UK (2001) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ifs:fistud:v:22:y:2001:i:3:p:375-399
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
The Institute for Fiscal Studies 7 Ridgmount Street LONDON WC1E 7AE
Access Statistics for this article
More articles in Fiscal Studies from Institute for Fiscal Studies The Institute for Fiscal Studies 7 Ridgmount Street LONDON WC1E 7AE. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emma Hyman ().