IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sip/dpaper/07-020.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do R&D Tax Credits Work? Evidence from a Panel of Countries 1979-1997

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas Bloom

    (Economics Department, Stanford University)

  • Rachel Griffith

    (Economics, University of Manchester)

  • John Van Reenen

    (London School of Economics)

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of fiscal incentives on the level of R&D investment. An econometric model of R&D investment is estimated using a new panel of data on tax changes and R&D spending in nine OECD countries over a 19-year period (1979–1997). We find evidence that tax incentives are effective in increasing R&D intensity. This is true even after allowing for permanent country-specific characteristics, world macro shocks and other policy influences. We estimate that a 10% fall in the cost of R&D stimulates just over a 1% rise in the level of R&D in the short-run, and just under a 10% rise in R&D in the long-run.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Bloom & Rachel Griffith & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Do R&D Tax Credits Work? Evidence from a Panel of Countries 1979-1997," Discussion Papers 07-020, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:sip:dpaper:07-020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-siepr.stanford.edu/repec/sip/07-020.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David, Paul A. & Hall, Bronwyn H. & Toole, Andrew A., 2000. "Is public R&D a complement or substitute for private R&D? A review of the econometric evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4-5), pages 497-529, April.
    2. Devereux, Michael P. & Pearson, Mark, 1995. "European tax harmonisation and production efficiency," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1657-1681, December.
    3. Gordon, Roger H & Bovenberg, A Lans, 1996. "Why Is Capital So Immobile Internationally? Possible Explanations and Implications for Capital Income Taxation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(5), pages 1057-1075, December.
    4. Rachel Griffith & David Sandler & John Van Reenen, 1995. "Tax incentives for R&D," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 16(2), pages 21-44, May.
    5. Michael P. Devereux & Rachel Griffith, 1998. "The Taxation of Discrete Investment Choices," Keele Department of Economics Discussion Papers (1995-2001) 98/08, Department of Economics, Keele University.
    6. Aghion, Philippe & Howitt, Peter, 1992. "A Model of Growth through Creative Destruction," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(2), pages 323-351, March.
    7. Hall, Bronwyn H & Griliches, Zvi & Hausman, Jerry A, 1986. "Patents and R and D: Is There a Lag?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 27(2), pages 265-283, June.
    8. Alan J. Auerbach (ed.), 1997. "Fiscal Policy: Lessons from Economic Research," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262011603, December.
    9. James R. Hines, Jr., 1994. "No Place like Home: Tax Incentives and the Location of R&D by American Multinationals," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 8, pages 65-104, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Mervyn A. King, 1974. "Taxation and the Cost of Capital," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(1), pages 21-35.
    11. Zvi Griliches, 1984. "R&D, Patents, and Productivity," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gril84-1, March.
    12. Bronwyn H. Hall, 1993. "R&D Tax Policy during the 1980s: Success or Failure?," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 7, pages 1-36, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Granstrand, Ove, 1999. "Internationalization of corporate R&D: a study of Japanese and Swedish corporations1," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 275-302, March.
    14. Mamuneas, Theofanis P. & Ishaq Nadiri, M., 1996. "Public R&D policies and cost behavior of the US manufacturing industries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 57-81, December.
    15. Jason G. Cummins & Kevin A. Hassett & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1994. "A Reconsideration of Investment Behavior Using Tax Reforms as Natural Experiments," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 25(2), pages 1-74.
    16. Nicolas Bloom & Lucy Chennells & Rachel Griffith & John Van Reenen, 1996. "How has tax affected the changing cost of R&D? Evidence from eight countries," IFS Working Papers W97/03, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    17. Dagenais, M. & Mohnen, P. & Therrien, P., 1997. "Do Canadian Firms Respond to Fiscal Incentives To Research and Development?," G.R.E.Q.A.M. 97b05, Universite Aix-Marseille III.
    18. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    19. Mansfield, Edwin, 1986. "The R&D Tax Credit and Other Technology Policy Issues," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 190-194, May.
    20. Cohen, Wesley M. & Levin, Richard C., 1989. "Empirical studies of innovation and market structure," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 18, pages 1059-1107, Elsevier.
    21. Chirinko, Robert S. & Fazzari, Steven M. & Meyer, Andrew P., 1999. "How responsive is business capital formation to its user cost?: An exploration with micro data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 53-80, October.
    22. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1426, November.
    23. Patel, Pari & Vega, Modesto, 1999. "Patterns of internationalisation of corporate technology: location vs. home country advantages1," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 145-155, March.
    24. Bruno Van Pottelsberghe & Dominique Guellec, 2001. "The effectiveness of public policies in R&D," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/6225, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    25. Jeffrey I. Bernstein, 1986. "The Effect of Direct and Indirect Tax Incentives on Canadian Industrial R&D Expenditures," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 12(3), pages 438-448, September.
    26. Alison Young, 1996. "Measuring R&D in the Services," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 1996/7, OECD Publishing.
    27. Nicolas Bloom & Rachel Griffith & John Van Reenen, 1999. "Do R&D tax credits work? Evidence from an international panel of countries 1979-1994," IFS Working Papers W99/08, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    28. Serapio Jr., Manuel G. & Dalton, Donald H., 1999. "Globalization of industrial R&D: an examination of foreign direct investments in R&D in the United States," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 303-316, March.
    29. Alan J. Auerbach, 1979. "Wealth Maximization and the Cost of Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 93(3), pages 433-446.
    30. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    31. Bronwyn H. Hall & John van Reenen, 1999. "How Effective are Fiscal Incentives for R&D? A New Review of the Evidence," NBER Working Papers 7098, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    32. Anderson, T. W. & Hsiao, Cheng, 1982. "Formulation and estimation of dynamic models using panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 47-82, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Van Reenen, John & Griffith, Rachel & Bloom, Nicholas, 2000. "Do R&D Credits Work? Evidence From A Panel Of Countries 1979-97," CEPR Discussion Papers 2415, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Bettina Becker, 2013. "The Determinants of R&D Investment: A Survey of the Empirical Research," Discussion Paper Series 2013_09, Department of Economics, Loughborough University, revised Sep 2013.
    3. Russell Thomson, 2010. "Tax Policy and R&D Investment by Australian Firms," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(273), pages 260-280, June.
    4. Bettina Becker, 2015. "Public R&D Policies And Private R&D Investment: A Survey Of The Empirical Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 917-942, December.
    5. Crespi, Gustavo & Giuliodori, David & Giuliodori, Roberto & Rodriguez, Alejandro, 2016. "The effectiveness of tax incentives for R&D+i in developing countries: The case of Argentina," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 2023-2035.
    6. Jacques Mairesse & Bronwyn H. Hall & Benoît Mulkay, 1999. "Firm-Level Investment in France and the United States: An Exploration of What We Have Learned in Twenty Years," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 55-56, pages 27-67.
    7. Jacques Mairesse & Benoît Mulkay, 2004. "Une evaluation du credit d’impot recherche en France, 1980-1997," Working Papers 2004-43, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    8. A. Minniti & F. Venturini, 2014. "R&D Policy and Schumpeterian Growth: Theory and Evidence," Working Papers wp945, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    9. Bosch, Mariano & Lederman, Daniel & Maloney, William F., 2005. "Patenting and research and development : a global view," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3739, The World Bank.
    10. Tuomas A. Peltonen & Ricardo M. Sousa & Isabel S. Vansteenkiste, 2011. "Fundamentals, Financial Factors, and the Dynamics of Investment in Emerging Markets," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(0), pages 88-105, May.
    11. Bergman, Karin, 2011. "Productivity Effects of Privately and Publicly Funded R&D," Working Papers 2011:28, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    12. Andrew C. Chang, 2014. "Tax Policy Endogeneity: Evidence from R&D Tax Credits," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2014-101, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    13. Daniel J. Wilson, 2005. "Beggar thy neighbor? the in-state vs. out-of-state impact of state R&D tax credits," Working Paper Series 2005-08, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    14. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Lerner, Josh, 2010. "The Financing of R&D and Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 609-639, Elsevier.
    15. Rachel Griffith & Stephen Redding & John Van Reenen, 2001. "Measuring the cost-effectiveness of an R&D tax credit for the UK," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 375-399, September.
    16. Gehringer, Agnieszka & Prettner, Klaus, 2019. "Longevity And Technological Change," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(4), pages 1471-1503, June.
    17. Hall, Bronwyn & Van Reenen, John, 2000. "How effective are fiscal incentives for R&D? A review of the evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4-5), pages 449-469, April.
    18. Eugenio Gaiotti & Andrea Generale, 2002. "Does Monetary Policy Have Asymmetric Effects? A Look at the Investment Decisions of Italian Firms," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 61(1), pages 29-59, June.
    19. Martin Andersson & Hans Lööf, 2011. "Agglomeration and productivity: evidence from firm-level data," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 46(3), pages 601-620, June.
    20. Benoît Mulkay & Jacques Mairesse, 2013. "The R&D tax credit in France: assessment and ex ante evaluation of the 2008 reform," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 65(3), pages 746-766, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    tax credits; R&D; panel data; tax competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sip:dpaper:07-020. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Anne Shor (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cestaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.