Innovative public procurement and R&D Subsidies: hidden treatment and new empirical evidence on the technology policy mix in a quasi-experimental setting

This paper provides new empirical evidence about the impact of technological policies upon firms’ innovative behavior. We take into consideration the role of R&D subsidies and innovative public procurement. While the former policy tool has been both extensively discussed in the literature and empirically investigated, the latter is a growing trend, which still lacks robust empirical evidence. In this paper, we replicate existing results on R&D subsidies, we surmise fresh empirical evidence on the outcome of innovative public procurement, and we address the issue of a possible interaction among the two tools. When controlling for this interaction of public procurement, R&D subsidies cease to be as effective as reported in previous studies. Innovative public procurement seems to be more effective than R&D subsidies. Evidence suggests that the two policies provide the highest impact when they interact and that they have to be simultaneously considered. Failure in doing so might lead to biased results.