Joost Heijs

Freerider behaviour and the public finance of R&D activities in enterprises: the case of the Spanish low interest credits for R&D

Abstract This paper analyses the freeriding behaviour in the case of public finance for R&D activities in enterprises. It will start with a brief discussion about the concept of freeriding and its importance to justify public support measures and offers a review of the methods, indicators and results reflected in the evaluation studies. In the second part of the paper, the impact of the Spanish low interest credits for R&D projects for individual firms will be analysed. A profile of the “freerider firms” will be offered, defined as those supported firms whose innovative efforts do not depend on public aid and probably would or could have carried out the same level of innovative activities without public support. Moreover, the paper presents some evidence that firms with a freerider behaviour show a lower level of goal achievement related to their technical and commercial objectives and consider the learning effects as less important than the other firms. This could suggest, indirectly, that freeriders generate fewer externalities available for the production system as a whole—than the non-freerider firms.

Identification of firms supported by technology policies: the case of Spanish low interest credits

This paper analyses the pick-up rate in the Spanish production structure of the low interest credits for R&D projects, offered by the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology. The profiles of these firms, based on association tests and a logistic regression model, are characterised, for instance, by their size, sector, social capital, competitive position, innovative efforts and orientation, and their level of internationalisation. It is found that the more innovative firms participate more frequently in public support schemes. Thus one of the main problems for the traditional technology policy model is that it does not reach the firms that are not involved in any innovative activity. A technology policy initiative like this favours the most dynamic and fast growing innovative firms by accelerating their innovative activities but does not generate an increase in the number of innovative firms. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

The Economic Cost of March 11: Measuring the Direct Economic Cost of the Terrorist Attack on March 11, 2004 in Madrid

This article attempts to measure the direct costs that the terrorist attacks of 3/11 had on the economy of the region of Madrid. The evaluation has been made applying conservative criteria, and the results obtained have to be considered as minimum. The result indicates that the terrorist attacks caused a loss of nearly 212 million euros to the regional economy of Madrid, equivalent to 0.16 percent of the regional GDP (0.03 of the national GDP). This confirms that the immediate economic dimension of a terrorist attack such as the one of 3/11—apart from human catastrophic consequences—is relatively low.

Technological Behaviour and Export Probability in Developing Countries The Case of Mexico

This article studies innovative behaviour and its impact on export activity. Our results show—for the Mexican case—that innovation is a method used to meet international standards and is therefore necessary in order to compete in export markets. This relationship has been observed in both developed and developing countries, although the exact configuration differs, probably due to the different role innovation plays in each. We used several sub-samples showing that different types of firms are associated with distinct independent variables. These variables could quite possibly explain many of the differing and often contradictory results in existing literature.