Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/24510 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
ZEW Discussion Papers No. 06-055
Publisher: 
Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW), Mannheim
Abstract: 
The literature suggests that public research and development (R&D) subsidies may reduce market failures affecting private R&D investment caused by incomplete appropriability of knowledge and financial constraints due capital market imperfections. Drawing on the theory of investment under uncertainty, this paper argues that public R&D subsidies increase business R&D investment through an additional mechanism – mitigating the effects of market uncertainty on R&D investment in markets for new products. Using a sample of German manufacturing firms, we show that market uncertainty indeed reduces R&D investment, and that R&D subsidies mitigate the effect of uncertainty. Our findings suggest that public policies aimed at increasing business R&D investment can achieve this objective by reducing the degree of uncertainty in the demand for innovative products.
Subjects: 
Real Options Theory
Uncertainty
R&D
Censored Regression
JEL: 
C25
O31
O33
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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