Public financing of cooperative R&D projects in Spain: the Concerted Projects under the National R&D Plan

This work will analyse the factors which influence decision-making within the Spanish public sector on the financing of precompetitive research projects developed by firms in collaboration with universities and public research organisms. With this objective in mind, an econometric model is proposed that explains simultaneously the concession of aid on behalf of the public sector and the amount of such aid. The estimates carried out indicate, among other results, that the destination of the budgeted funds explains a large part of the public financing received. However, all the evidence would seem to indicate that the funding has not been awarded either in order to significantly favour those firms which most need it, nor to give incentive to high levels of cooperation. ; We are grateful to Victor Cano, Praveen Kujal, Stan Metcalfe, Manuel Navarro, Maria del Pilar Osorno, Olga Rodriguez and three anonymous referees for useful comments and suggestions. We also wish to point out that the information contained in this paper had been obtained thanks to the collaboration of the Centre for Industrial Technological Development ŽCDTI. and the Interministerial Commission for Science and Technology ŽCICYT. This work has received financing form the National R&D Plan ŽProjects SEC93-833-CO2 and SEC97-1331. ; Publicado