This paper examines the determinants of investment in R&D by Australian firms, with a focus on the role of tax policy. The analysis considers an unbalanced panel of financial data of about 500 large Australian firms between 1990 and 2005. The principal result is that no evidence can be found...

Existing empirical evidence suggests that public subsidies and fiscal incentives have a positive effect on the amount of private R&D expenditure. However, most studies have failed to address the possibility at least some of this increase may simply reflect the fact that R&D workers are being...