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Is a higher rate of R&D tax credit a panacea for low levels of R&D in disadvantaged regions?

Richard Harris (), Qian Li () and Mary Trainor

Research Policy, 2009, vol. 38, issue 1, 192-205

Abstract: This paper studies the impact of R&D spending on output as well as forecasting the impact of a regionally enhanced R&D tax credit on the 'user cost' (or price) of R&D expenditure and subsequently the demand for R&D. The example we use of a 'disadvantaged' region is Northern Ireland (partly because it has the lowest levels of R&D spending in the UK, and partly because the necessary data is available for this region). We find that in the long run, R&D spending has a mostly positive impact on output across various manufacturing industries. In addition, plants with a zero R&D stock experience significant one-off negative productivity effects. As to the adjustment of R&D in response to changes in the 'user cost', our results suggest a rather slow adjustment over time, and a long-run own-price elasticity of around -1.4 for Northern Ireland. We also find that to have a major impact on R&D spending in the Province, the R&D tax credit would need to be increased substantially; this would be expensive in terms of the net exchequer cost.

Keywords: R&D; tax; credit; Northern; Ireland; Productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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