R&D investment, innovative efficiency and financial constraints: empirical analysis using structural equation model and mixed-effects zero-inflated-Poisson model

• Ano de defesa: 2022
• Autor(a) principal: Borri, Karine Teixeira
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: Desenvolvimento financeiro; Eficiência inovativa; Financial constraints; Financial development; Innovative efficiency; Investimento em P&D; Modelo de equação estrutural; Modelo de Poisson; Poisson model; R&D investment; Restrição financeira; Structural equation model
• Link de acesso: https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/18/18157/tde-01122022-091252/

Innovation has been considered as a key element for long term economic growth. Given that R&D investment have unique characteristics, the implementation of proper instruments to foment innovation requires a clear study of the necessary strategies to operate efficiently. Therefore, many empirical studies have been exploring the relation between investment in R&D and financial constraints, and have shown that R&D investment is more sensitive to financial constraints than other types of investments. However, contrary to the wisdom idea that financial constraints may understate innovation, a few empirical studies have suggested a bright side of financial constraints to innovation. There is evidence that higher level of financial constraint may be associated with a higher level of innovative efficiency. The aim of this study is to provide robust empirical analysis of how financial constraints are related to R&D investment and innovative efficiency. Besides, we explore the role of financial development in R&D investment and the relation between R&D tax subsidies and innovative efficiency. Using two databases, we perform two different approaches. First, we employ the Structural Equation Model via Maximum Likelihood (ML-SEM) methodology to estimate the relation between R&D investment and the financial variables in both emerging and developed countries. The findings suggest that firms extensively use internal resources to finance their R&D activities. Also, credit supply is an important channel to release resources to R&D projects, especially for more constrained firms. Second, we employ a mixed-effects zero-inflated Poisson model to study the impact of financial factors and firm\'s characteristics on innovative efficiency, and extend our analysis to observe the relation between innovative efficiency and R&D tax incentive. Our results highlights that smaller firms have a higher probability of been more innovative efficient. We find strong evidence that the agency problems faced by larger firms jeopardize the selection of innovation projects, leading to a decrease in innovative efficiency. Moreover, tax credits to R&D have a negative impact on innovative efficiency, which raises the doubt of whether this is a public efficient instrument to foment innovation.