Acceso usuarios
Ignacio Moral Arce, María Milagros Paniagua San Martín
Research and development (R&D) have been playing a very important role in business growth during the last decades. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of the European Funds on R&D in Spanish companies during the period 2007-2011 taking into account that other factors but the EU Funds could have affected their results. Using data of companies, the impact of the EU grants is assessed on key outcome variables making use of three quasi-experimental models: a Difference in Difference approach based on panel data, the Propensity Score Matching technique, and a combination of the two. The research yields positive effects on the majority of the outcome variables studied. As an example, sales and internal company’s investment are statistically larger for those businesses taking part in the EU support than for those not receiving the funds. This paper contributes to show evidence of the effects of the EU cohesion policy on R&D by means of impact evaluation tools.
