In the attempt to boost innovation, policy-makers have enacted a myriad of programs targeting innovative start-ups in recent years. Empirical evidence on these initiatives has almost exclusively focused on national-level programs, overlooking those implemented at the local level. This paper...

Offering unemployed individuals a subsidy to become self-employed is a widespread active labor market policy strategy. Previous studies have illustrated its high effectiveness to help participants escaping unemployment and improving their labor market prospects compared to other unemployed...

From an active labor market policy perspective, start-up subsidies for unemployed individuals are very effective in improving long-term labor market outcomes for participants. From a business perspective, however, the assessment of these public programs is less clear since they might attract...

This paper investigates economic and subjective effects of public business assistance delivered to nascent entrepreneurs in Germany. Employing cluster analysis, we explore the actual scope and intensity of business assistance used. Then we analyze predictors of take-up and perceived usefulness...

This paper explores how a prominent place-based policy in China, the national high-tech zones, affects local innovation output and entrepreneurial activities. Relying on plausible exogenous variation in place-based policies caused by staggered establishments of national high-tech zones, we find...

This study analyses the effectiveness of targeted public support for R&D investment. In particular, we test whether the specific policy design aiming at incentivizing (international) collaboration and R&D in small and mediumsized firms achieves the desired objectives on input as well as output...

This study investigates predictors of scientists’ intentions to commercialize their research through business founding. Analyzing a cross-sectional sample of 496 German scientists, we develop and test an intentions-based model of academic entrepreneurship combining personal and contextual...

Among contemporary economists, Mariana Mazzucato stands out for her emphasis on the importance of innovation to solve pressing challenges and achieve a greater quality of life. However, the type of mission-oriented innovation policies she promotes usually rely on an overly mechanical view of...

This paper introduces a new type of R&D subsidy, which is conditional on the success of the R&D project. In a threestage model, the government chooses a subsidy(ies) in the first stage; in the second stage, a monopolist chooses R&D effort which determines the size or the probability of success of...

The paper considers the direct, strategic investments that have been made by international public institutions creating and shaping (not only fixing) green technology. It builds on the key themes found in the The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths