Knowledge and rent spillovers through government-sponsored R&D consortia

摘要

This paper empirically examines the spillover effects through government-sponsored R&D consortia (collaborative R&D projects among private firms, universities, and public research institutes) using firm-level data and the propensity score matching method. The participants in R&D consortia are expected to enhance their performance as a result of direct knowledge spillovers. The business partners of the consortia members may also enjoy indirect effects including rent spillovers through their business transactions. Focusing on a major support program for R&D consortia in Japan, the Consortium R&D Project for Regional Revitalization, we confirm that there are both direct (knowledge) spillover effects from the firms' participation in this program as well as indirect spillover effects on the customer firms of the consortia members. Moreover, by comparing large firms and small and medium-sized enterprises, we find that only the latter benefit from knowledge spillovers in the R&D consortia; among their customers, only large firms enjoy indirect spillover effects.