Page 13 - IDEA Studie 07 2023 TACR

ARE SUBSIDIES TO BUSINESS R&D EFFECTIVE? REGRESSION
DISCONTINUITY EVIDENCE FROM THE TA CR ALFA PROGRAMME IDEA 2023
that were eliminated based on the binary criteria declined over time from 48% in the 1st call to 27% in the 4th call, leaving a greater role for evaluator scores. Consequently, thecutoff for funding rose steadily from 71 to 77, 83 and 85 evaluation points in the consecutive calls. The number of proposals within our baseline bandwith of 5 points around the cutoff increased even more than the total number of proposals in subsequent calls, because the distribution of the proposals is skewed toward higher scores.6
By the duration of a supported project, which is denoted by d in this paper, we mean the number of years from the first to the last calendar year in which at least one of the project participants received public support; in the estimation, this defines the years “during the project” and “after the project”.7 According to the programme rules, the minimum duration oscillated between 1 to 2 years and the maximum duration gradually decreased with the approaching end of the programme from 6, 5, 4, to 3.5 years in the consecutive calls. In practice, however, the projects typically spanned 3 or 4 years. In fact, of the total 424 subsidised projects, only 14 concluded within the first 2 years and 18 lasted 5 or 6 years. The vast majority of projects lasted for either 3 (157 projects) or 4 years (235 projects).
6 9 projects in call 1, 40 projects in call 2, 6 projects in call 3, and 19 projects in call 4 were recommended for funding and ranked above the cutoff, but eventually did not take place because the potential recipients did not sign the funding contract due to unanticipated events such as a break-up of the consortium, loss of key personnel, unfavourable market conditions, or because the potential recipients violated the contract; these projects were eliminated from our analysis and hence are not included in the figures presented here.
7 Note that the administrative duration of the project could be longer, because some projects included additional years without drawing public funding as a formal extension for the purpose of reporting projects outputs that take longer to deliver, such as obtaining a granted patent.
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