Impact of the research tax credit (CIR) on R&D&I, productivity and employment

The research tax credit (CIR) has become central to the French R&I support policy, whether in terms of public spending or in terms of interactions with other R&D&I support schemes. The CIR impact and interaction evaluation is thus a crucial contribution for Evaluation Commission, which will take into account statistical data availability for companies in the frame of the evolution of Insee’s policy regarding statistical data availability. Econometric studies have fallen behind schedule to evaluate the 2008 reform. This has partly prompted the Research Ministry to write a report on the CIR including new descriptive statistics analysis (MENESR/SITTAR., 2014, “Développement et impact du crédit d’impôt recherche : 1983-2011”). Up to now, evaluations of the CIR have focused on its impact on R&D expenses. Conversely CIR impact on innovation and company performance have just started to be studied. Two independent but complementary studies will be associated to enable economies of scale, namely for the access to data and building various samples to work on. They will also strengthen the quality of the analysis and the reliability of the results obtained. The first study will be strictly deal with the CIR’s impacts on corporate R&D effort, while the second will more broadly look at the subsequent company performance in terms of innovation and productivity, as well as job creation.

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