Rilevanza e impatto delle politiche dell innovazione in Italia. Prime indicazioni fornite dalle indagini CIS

This article provides new evidence on the relevance and impact of public support to innovation activities in the case of Italy. The empirical analysis is based on data drawn from the two most recent Community Innovation Surveys (CIS). On the basis of the evidence presented the innovation policy model in Italy could be qualified as “diffusion oriented”: innovation policies reach a rather large section of the Italian business sector and support mainly the introduction of process innovation and the acquisition of new vintages of capital equipment. Only a minority of Italian firms is in fact able to get access to public funds and incentives supporting R&D activities and more radical innovation projects. The firm-level econometric estimates show only weak relationships between the access to public incentives and the innovation performance of firms and reveal a limited effectiveness of the Italian technology policies.