The Effectiveness of Investment Subsidies : Evidence from Survey Data

This paper investigates the effects of investment subsidies on the accumulation decisions of a sample of Italian manufacturing firms. We use survey information on the subjective evaluation of the investment activity that the recipient firm would have undertaken, had it not been financed. We find that the effectiveness of subsidies to stimulate investment is limited. Without subsidies, three quarters of the financed firms would have carried out the same amount of investment at the same date; the remaining share of firms would have mostly carried out the same amount of investment in a future date