Public Procurement as Policy Instrument for Innovation
42 Pages Posted: 23 Jan 2018
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Public Procurement as Policy Instrument for Innovation
Public Procurement as Policy Instrument for Innovation
Date Written: 2018
Abstract
The use of public procurement to promote private innovation activities has attracted increasing attention recently. Germany implemented a legal change in its procurement framework in 2009, which allowed government agencies to specify innovative aspects of procured products as selection criteria in tender calls. We analyze a representative sample of German firms to investigate whether this reform stimulated innovation in the business sector. Across a wide set of specifications — OLS, nearest-neighbor matching, IV regressions and difference-in-differences — we find a robust and significant effect of innovation directed public procurement on turnover from new products and services. However, our results show that the effect is largely attributable to innovations of more incremental nature rather than market novelties.
Keywords: Public Procurement of Innovation, Public Procurement with Contracted Innovation, Technical Change, Research and Development, Econometric Policy Evaluation
JEL Classification: H57, O38
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation