Focusing on business R&D by analysing R&D micro-data

The availability of ten-years series of Italian business R&D micro-data has allowed for exploring some original paths of micro-analysis on the R&D performances and strategies of Italian firms. By re-focusing economic research on the specific role of R&D in the framework of the broader innovation efforts by firms, a set of contributions have been produced: from a detailed description of "R&D persistence" as a peculiar phenomenon of R&D performance in Italy, to an analysis of the degree of international integration of Italian business R&D; from a description of observed inter-industry R&D flows, to an evaluation of the impact of R&D tax credit in Italy. The source of data for these analyses has been the business R&D survey, run by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat).