The Relationship Between R&D Tax Incentives and Innovation Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Oecd Countries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20800561Anahtar Kelimeler:
R&D Expenditures- Tax Incentives- Innovation- Tax Incentives for R&D ExpendituresÖzet
This study examines the relationship between R&D tax incentives and innovation performance in selected OECD countries. In an environment of increasingly intense global competition, innovation has become one of the key determinants of sustainable economic growth, leading governments to rely more heavily on tax-based policy instruments to support R&D activities. However, the existing literature has not reached a clear consensus on the impact of R&D incentives on innovation, and long-run cross-country analyses remain relatively limited. Using a panel dataset covering the period 2007-2022, innovation performance is proxied by the Global Innovation Index, while R&D policies are analysed within the framework of tax incentives, public R&D expenditures, and firm-level R&D financing. The empirical findings indicate that R&D tax incentives generally exert a positive effect on innovation performance in OECD countries. The impact of firm-level R&D financing on innovation outputs strengthens over time, whereas the contribution of public R&D expenditures appears to be more limited and sensitive to implementation conditions. Overall, the results suggest that the effects of R&D policies on innovation materialise not in the short run but in the long run through cumulative mechanisms. Long-term and comparative empirical evidence highlights that tax-based R&D incentives should be considered a central instrument in the design of innovation policies.
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