Macroeconomic, intersectoral, and environmental effects of R&D subsidies in Chile: An input-output approach

• Published in: Technological forecasting & social change Vol. 173; p. 121112
• Main Authors: Mardones, Cristian, Velásquez, Andrés
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Inc 01-12-2021; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Employment; Environment; Environmental effects; Expenditures; Input-Output; Labor market; Leontief price model; Macroeconomics; R&D; Research & development; Research & development expenditures; Subsidies; Chile; Leontief price model; R&D; Environment; Input-Output
• ISSN: 0040-1625; 1873-5509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121112

•R&D subsidies in Chile are simulated with an intersectoral approach.•IOT and Survey of R&D expenditure are merged to use the Leontief price model.•R&D sector has the lowest backward linkage and employment effect.•Most intensive sectors in the use of domestic R&D receive indirect benefits.•Links between R&D subsidies and environmental impacts are obtained.
The present study simulates subsidies to the R&D in Chile with an intersectoral approach known as the Leontief price model. For this, it has been used information from the Input-Output Tables (IOT), R&D expenditures at the sector level collected from the Survey of R&D Expenditure and Research Personnel, and labor market data available from the National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey. Thus, the official IOT data are broken down into new sectors to represent monetary transactions carried out by the R&D sector. Then, it is possible to obtain changes on macroeconomic, intersectoral, and environmental variables for different subsidy rates throughout the simulations performed with the model. The results show that an increase in R&D subsidies reduces the prices slightly and increases production, employment, and emissions at the sectoral level. Additionally, it is determined that the fiscal expenditure required to finance this subsidy is greater than the stimulus on national production. Finally, it can be concluded that the positive effects appear to be more relevant than negative impacts, so it is recommended to increase the rate of R&D subsidy in the country according to the availability of fiscal resources.