Scholarlink

<p>This paper identifies policy failures in public support for firm innovation and examines the causes of these failures. We examine the effectiveness of an innovation voucher policy in China, designed to foster small business innovation by providing financial support for purchasing external knowledge and technical services. The staggered implementation of the policy allows for a difference-in-differences design to estimate the intention-to-treat effects. We also conduct the as-treated analysis to estimate the policy effects for firms that received innovation vouchers. The results consistently show that the policy fails to significantly increase firms’ R&amp;D investments and patent applications. We identify three primary causes of policy failures: low take-up rates, with a high percentage of vouchers unused; targeting bias, with vouchers predominantly used for services less relevant to substantive innovations; and noncompliance, with evidence of fraudulent use of vouchers. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the causes of policy failures for more effective design and implementation of public R&amp;D and innovation policies.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Policy failure in public support for small business innovation: the case of innovation vouchers in China

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年9月27日

查看全文
  • Xiaoyong Dai,
  • Peichao Guo

摘要

This paper identifies policy failures in public support for firm innovation and examines the causes of these failures. We examine the effectiveness of an innovation voucher policy in China, designed to foster small business innovation by providing financial support for purchasing external knowledge and technical services. The staggered implementation of the policy allows for a difference-in-differences design to estimate the intention-to-treat effects. We also conduct the as-treated analysis to estimate the policy effects for firms that received innovation vouchers. The results consistently show that the policy fails to significantly increase firms’ R&D investments and patent applications. We identify three primary causes of policy failures: low take-up rates, with a high percentage of vouchers unused; targeting bias, with vouchers predominantly used for services less relevant to substantive innovations; and noncompliance, with evidence of fraudulent use of vouchers. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the causes of policy failures for more effective design and implementation of public R&D and innovation policies.