The impact of R&D subsidies on R&D employment composition

Sergio Afcha and Jose Garcia-Quevedo

Industrial and Corporate Change, 2016, vol. 25, issue 6, 955-975

Abstract: In this article, we examine the impact of subsidies granted at national and regional levels on a set of research and development (R&D) employment variables, and we specifically seek to identify the existence of additional effects of these public subsidies on the R&D human resources of firms. We begin by assessing the effects of public funds on private R&D expenditure and on the number of R&D employees, and then focus on the impact of these funds on the composition of human resources engaged in R&D classified by occupation and level of education. The data used are from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel for the period 2006–2011. To control for selection bias and endogeneity, a combination of nonparametric matching techniques is used. Our results show that R&D subsidies increase the number of R&D employees, but no contemporaneous increase is found in the average level of qualification of R&D staff members in subsidized firms. Nevertheless, in the subsequent years there is a positive effect on the recruitment of PhD holders. The effects of public support are heterogeneous and are dependent on the source of the subsidy and the firms’ characteristics.

JEL-codes: C14 H25 J24 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Working Paper: The impact of R&D subsidies on R&D employment composition (2014)
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