Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/246777 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
HFI Working Paper No. 23
Publisher: 
Institute of Retail Economics (HFI), Stockholm
Abstract: 
Most previous studies on the employment effects of government R&D grants targeting SMEs are characterized by data-, measurement-, and selection problems, making it difficult to construct a relevant control group of firms that did not receive a R&D grant. We investigate the effects on employment and firm-level demand for high human capital workers of two Swedish programs targeted towards growth-oriented SMEs using Coarsened Exact Matching. Our most striking result is the absence of any statistically significant effects. We find no robust evidence that the targeted R&D grant programs had any positive and statistically significant effects on the number of employees recruited into these SMEs, or that the grants are associated with an increase in the demand for high human capital workers. The lack of statistically significant findings is troublesome considering that government support programs require a positive impact to cover the administrative costs associated with these programs.
Subjects: 
Innovation policy
R&D grants
Matching grants
Statistical matching methods
High human capital
Firm growth
Outcome additionality
JEL: 
H81
L25
L26
O38
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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