Financing Innovation: Evidence from R&D Grants
利用美国能源部SBIR项目的申请者排名数据，发现早期研发补贴能显著提高初创企业获得后续风投、专利和收入的可能性，且对融资约束强的企业效果更明显。
Governments regularly subsidize new ventures to spur innovation. This paper conducts the first large-sample, quasi-experimental evaluation of R&D subsidies. I use data on ranked applicants to the US Department of Energy's SBIR grant program. An early-stage award approximately doubles the probability that a firm receives subsequent venture capital and has large, positive impacts on patenting and revenue. These effects are stronger for more financially constrained firms. Certification, where the award contains information about firm quality, likely does not explain the grant effect. Instead, the grants are useful because they fund technology prototyping.