Political activism positively affects firm innovation. Firms that support more politicians, politicians on Congressional committees with jurisdictional authority over the firms' industries and politicians who join those committees innovate more. We employ instrumental variables estimation and a...

One of the strategic goals defined in Lisbon in 2000 was to enhance innovation in the EU. The economic rationale for this government interference is a perceived market failure in the market for R&D activities. The idea is that without government interference the amount of R&D activities will be...