Government R&D Support for SMEs: Policy Effects and Improvement Measures

Abstract

Government R&D grants for SMEs have risen to three trillion Korean won a year, placing Korea second among OECD nations. Indeed, analysis results have revealed that government support has not only expanded corporate R&D investment and the registration of intellectual property rights but has also increased investment in tangible and human assets and marketing. However, value added, sales and operating profit have lacked improvement owing to an ineffective recipient selection system that relies solely on qualitative assessments by technology experts. Nevertheless, if a predictive model is properly applied to the system, the causal effect on value added could increase by more than two fold. Accordingly, it is important to focus on economic performance rather than technical achievements to develop such a model.

Keywords

• R&D Policy
• SMEs
• Program Evaluation Genetic Matching
• Heterogeneous Causal Effect