The Innovation Impacts of R&D Tax Credits in the UK
利用英国中小企业面板数据，检验研发税收抵免是否促进了产品创新、过程创新及激进创新，发现其效果需时间显现，且与外部创新咨询结合时更显著。
ABSTRACT Strategic managers of SMEs face a number of barriers to successful R&D, and the high cost of funding R&D projects due to their technological uncertainty is a critical one. To alleviate this problem, the UK government introduced R&D tax credits for firms with innovation projects that are scientifically or technologically uncertain in 2000, and this scheme has remained in place ever since. In this paper, we use a large longitudinal SME data set for the UK to test whether R&D tax credits have been successful in stimulating more innovation, whether they have impacted more on process or product innovation, and if they have promoted radical as opposed to incremental innovation. Our findings show that R&D tax credits are associated with product and process innovation, and also radical innovation of both types. It was also the case that the R&D tax credit effect took time to manifest itself in superior innovation outcomes. In general, the positive impact of R&D tax credits in the UK on firm‐level innovation is most apparent when firms also leverage external advice specifically related to innovation and strategy.