Picking the winner? Empirical evidence on the targeting of R&D subsidies to start-ups

Uwe Cantner () and Sarah Kösters ()

Small Business Economics, 2012, vol. 39, issue 4, 936 pages

Abstract: This paper investigates the allocation of R&D subsidies given to start-ups. Considering the coexistence of various R&D project schemes, we take an aggregate view and analyze the determinants of the receipt of (any) R&D subsidies within the first three business years of the start-ups. We argue that policymakers and funding authorities follow a strategy of “picking the winner”. Analyzing start-ups in the East German state of Thuringia, we conduct logistic regressions and find ambiguous support. R&D subsidies are given to start-ups with innovative business ideas, especially academic spin-offs. Although the ambitions and patent stock of the founder(s) do not decide the receipt of R&D subsidies, team start-ups and the initial capital of a start-up tend to affect this decision positively. Hence, we cannot exclude a “picking the winner” strategy in targeting R&D subsidies to start-ups. More generally, however, the problems of policy targeting question the massive subsidization of private R&D. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2012

Keywords: Start-ups; R&D subsidies; Subsidy allocation; O38; L26; L52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (53)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11187-011-9340-9 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Picking the Winner? - Empirical Evidence on the Targeting of R&D Subsidies to Start-ups (2009)
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:kap:sbusec:v:39:y:2012:i:4:p:921-936

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... 29/journal/11187/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11187-011-9340-9

Access Statistics for this article

Small Business Economics is currently edited by Zoltan J. Acs and David B. Audretsch

More articles in Small Business Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().