Eric Strobl (CORE, Université catholique de Louvain), Sourafel Girma, Holger Görg

Government grants, plant survival and employment growth: A micro-econometric analysis

In this paper we analyse the impact of governmental grant provision on plant performance. To this end we utilise rich information derived from three data sources for the manufacturing sector in Ireland, where grant provision has been an important part of the industrial policy. We use a matching technique combined with a difference-in-differences estimator in the empirical analysis. Our results indicate that particularly capital and technology related, but also other types of grants can provide an important impetus to plant survival and employment growth.

Keywords: government assistance, grants, employment, survival, matching, difference-in-differences

JEL Codes: J2, L2, H2

Session: 1d   Room 2004   Category: Business demographics and performance 1

Paper