Knowledge agglomeration and public subsidies to business R&D: Evidence for Spanish firms

Abstract

In this paper, we study the role played by different dimensions of knowledge agglomeration as determinants of public subsidies to business R&D. For the analysis, we use firm-level information from the Spanish Panel of Technological Innovation (PITEC) and combine these data with information from other sources at the sectoral–regional level, obtaining an unbalanced panel of 28,082 observations of Spanish firms. Our results suggest that knowledge agglomeration affects both the probability of participation in subsidy programs and the subsidy amount awarded to supported firms. This effect is heterogeneous depending on the dimension of knowledge agglomeration considered (technological relatedness, regional specialization, intrasectoral or upstream knowledge pool, technological cooperation) and the level (regional, national, or European) of governance of public agencies.