IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-19-01088.html

Impact Assessment of the State Support Program for Micro and Small Enterprises in Georgia

Author

Listed:
  • Sophiko Skhirtladze

    (International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University)

  • Zurab Abramishvili

    (International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University)

  • Giorgi Papava

    (Ilia State University)

  • Irakli Barbakadze

    (International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effects of a state support program for micro and small enterprises in Georgia in 2016. Grants were awarded through a scoring system, according to which only those business plans that scored above a certain threshold were able to claim government subsidies. We use a sharp discontinuity design to study the impact of these government subsidies on firm-level outcomes. Official data from the implementing agency, Enterprise Georgia, was complemented by a firm-level survey of both program beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. This unique, combined data set allows us to examine a wide range of the social and economic impacts of the government program. We find significant treatment effects on total firm investment in the first year of the program. However, these impacts disappear in subsequent periods. The subsidies appear to have had no effect on sales or employment, even at the early stages of the program. Individual, entrepreneur level social and economic outcomes also seem to be unaffected by the government subsidies. If anything, entrepreneurs receiving support are less likely to be content with the job they are doing.

Suggested Citation

  • Sophiko Skhirtladze & Zurab Abramishvili & Giorgi Papava & Irakli Barbakadze, 2020. "Impact Assessment of the State Support Program for Micro and Small Enterprises in Georgia," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 1075-1082.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-19-01088
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2020/Volume40/EB-20-V40-I2-P92.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raffaello Bronzini & Eleonora Iachini, 2014. "Are Incentives for R&D Effective? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Approach," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 100-134, November.
    2. Sabrina T. Howell, 2017. "Financing Innovation: Evidence from R&D Grants," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(4), pages 1136-1164, April.
    3. Cerqua, Augusto & Pellegrini, Guido, 2014. "Do subsidies to private capital boost firms' growth? A multiple regression discontinuity design approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 114-126.
    4. Bernini, Cristina & Cerqua, Augusto & Pellegrini, Guido, 2017. "Public subsidies, TFP and efficiency: A tale of complex relationships," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 751-767.
    5. Dimos, Christos & Pugh, Geoff, 2016. "The effectiveness of R&D subsidies: A meta-regression analysis of the evaluation literature," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 797-815.
    6. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
    7. Stefaan Decramer & Stijn Vanormelingen, 2016. "The effectiveness of investment subsidies: evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 1007-1032, December.
    8. Scott J. Wallsten, 2000. "The Effects of Government-Industry R&D Programs on Private R&D: The Case of the Small Business Innovation Research Program," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(1), pages 82-100, Spring.
    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. Fernando Alexandre & Miguel Chaves & Miguel Portela, 2025. "Investment grants and firms’ productivity: how effective is a grant booster shot?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 64(4), pages 1601-1641, April.
    2. Nadine Levratto & Aurelien Quignon, 2021. "Innovation Performance and the Signal Effect: Evidence from a European Program," Working Papers halshs-03466903, HAL.
    3. Alexandre, Fernando & Chaves, Miguel & Portela, Miguel, 2022. "Investment Grants and Firms' Productivity: How Effective Is a Grant Booster Shot?," IZA Discussion Papers 15779, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Aurélien Quignon & Nadine Levratto, 2021. "Innovation Performance and the Signal Effect: Evidence from a European Program," EconomiX Working Papers 2021-34, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    5. Zhao, Bo & Ziedonis, Rosemarie, 2020. "State governments as financiers of technology startups: Evidence from Michigan's R&D loan program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(4).
    6. Pietro Santoleri & Andrea Mina & Alberto Di Minin & Irene Martelli, 2024. "The Causal Effects of R&D Grants: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1495-1510, November.
    7. Koh, Yumi & Lee, Gea M., 2023. "R&D subsidies in permissive and restrictive environment: Evidence from Korea," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    8. Augusto Cerqua & Guido Pellegrini, 2020. "Labor mobility effects of a firm-level shock," Working Papers 1/20, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.
    9. Ondřej Dvouletý & Stjepan Srhoj & Smaranda Pantea, 2021. "Public SME grants and firm performance in European Union: A systematic review of empirical evidence," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 243-263, June.
    10. Elizabeth Webster & Alfons Palangkaraya & Paul H. Jensen & Russell Thomson, 2024. "The effects of university-industry collaboration subsidies on firm performance," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2024n14, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    11. Thomas H. W. Ziesemer, 2021. "The Effects of R&D Subsidies and Publicly Performed R&D on Business R&D: A Survey," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 236(1), pages 171-205, March.
    12. Bearzotti, Enia & Polanec, Sašo & Bartolj, Tjaša, 2023. "The Effects of Subsidies on Firm Size and Productivity," MPRA Paper 118490, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Wei, Jiuchang & Chen, Changchun & Leng, Tiecheng & Zhang, Li, 2026. "Do government subsidies undermine organizational resilience? Evidence from stock price reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    14. Hünermund, Paul & Czarnitzki, Dirk, 2019. "Estimating the causal effect of R&D subsidies in a pan-European program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 115-124.
    15. Nathan Lane, 2026. "Defense promotion and industrial development," CEP Discussion Papers dp2208, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    16. Siying Long & Zhongju Liao, 2021. "Are fiscal policy incentives effective in stimulating firms' eco‐product innovation? The moderating role of dynamic capabilities," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 3095-3104, November.
    17. Jozef Konings & Aaron Putseys, 2026. "The impact of on-the-job training subsidies on firm-level outcomes: evidence from Flemish SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 66(3), pages 977-1003, March.
    18. Bajgar, Matěj & Srholec, Martin, 2025. "Crowding in or crowding out? Evidence from discontinuity in the assignment of business R&D subsidies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    19. Nathaniel Lane, 2020. "The New Empirics of Industrial Policy," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 209-234, June.
    20. Feldman, Maryann & Johnson, Evan E. & Bellefleur, Remi & Dowden, Savannah & Talukder, Eshika, 2022. "Evaluating the tail of the distribution: the economic contributions of frequently awarded government R&D recipients," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(7).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-19-01088. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.