• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.546-575
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• 2017

This paper investigates the effects of public R&D support on medium-sized firms' R&D investment. The paper collects a panel dataset of Korean manufacturing firms' R&D investment and public support, and employs the DID (difference-in-differences) regression for the test of stimulating or crowding-out effect. Empirical analysis examines how the effect of public R&D support differs between small and medium-sized firms and whether firm size and technological capability moderate the effect in the sample of medium-sized firms. Empirical results show that public R&D support tends to generally stimulate private pure R&D investment for both small and medium-sized firms. Comparing the results for small and medium-sized firms, this paper finds that the stimulating effect is relatively larger and more significant for medium-sized firms, while the effect is not significant for small ones. Furthermore, the paper shows that the stimulating effect of public R&D subsidy on private R&D investment is relatively stronger for medium-sized firms with superior technological competence and the effect of tax support is greater for incompetent firms. These results suggest that public R&D policies and R&D programs, differentiated from those for existing small firms, are necessary for medium-sized firms to stimulate private R&D continuously and formulated carefully by considering firm size, technological capability and growth potential.