Measuring the effects of public support schemes on firms' innovation activities

This paper discusses conceptual frameworks for measuring the effects of innovation policy. It begins with applying conventional descriptive methods to explore how firms rate and rank the merits of public intervention. Based on survey data from some 1200 Austrian firms we then challenge the hypothetical survey question (“What would you have done if public support was denied?”) by comparing the respective answers with changes that actually occurred when public assistance was refused. This is a contribution to the ongoing literature as is the attempt to relate any of the observed additionalities to the firms' characteristics, their perceived barriers to innovation and the degree to which they make use of the public support system.