Title: Defense financing of private R&D: evidences from French firms

Authors: Sarah Guillou, Christian Longhi

Addresses: OFCE (Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques) and GREDEG, CNRS, 250, Rue A. Einstein, Sophia-Antipolis, 06560 Cedex Valbonne, France. ' University of Nice Sophia Antipolis and GREDEG, CNRS, 250, Rue A. Einstein, Sophia-Antipolis, 06560 Cedex Valbonne, France

Abstract: This paper focuses on the public financing of private R&D. In France, this type of finance is mainly in the form of defense subsidies. This study brings empirical evidence on the open question of the effects of the public subsidies on private research, through analysing firms that receive R&D subsidies from the French Ministry for Defense. The paper builds different samples of firms from the available R&D and innovation surveys and evidences that the links with Defense have consequences on technological performance. Precisely, it shows that the firms benefiting from R&D subsidies exhibit a higher propensity to innovate.

Keywords: technology management; defence R&D; innovation management; dual-use technologies; government subsidies; France; technological performance; research and development; private R&D; defence financing; R&D finance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2010.031920

International Journal of Technology Management, 2010 Vol.50 No.1, pp.99 - 118

Published online: 06 Apr 2013 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article