Return on Investment of Public Support to SMEs and Innovation in Poland : ROI and Effectiveness Analysis Technical Note

This Technical Note describes the evaluation of EU support to innovation in Poland. The aim is to measure the effectiveness of support measures in the 2007-2013 perspective, demonstrate impact at the firm level, and derive relevant conclusions for future project design. The methodology can also serve as a guide for future analyses of public spending in Poland and other countries. The analysis aims to be comprehensive in the programs included in the evaluation. As the main interest is on support for innovation (broadly defined), innovation-related programs were included based on a portfolio mapping exercise and consultations with the Polish government. During 2007-13, the EU funds were used to create measures within the Operational Program for Innovative Economy (IE) and the Regional Operational Programs (ROP) to boost innovation of firms through, for instance, grants for capital equipment, R&D equipment, access to business services and access to trade fairs. Thus, the evaluation is conducted for over 100 measures during the 2007-2013 perspective, which have a variety of project objectives and outcomes. The wide variety of support measures (or instruments) makes it challenging to conduct a rigorous impact evaluation. The approach taken in the report is agnostic about the estimation models, testing various specifications to ensure that the effects of the support measures on firms are consistent across different models. In addition, the evaluation is comprehensive as it uses administrative firm-level data in Poland that covers the universe of firms (with at least 10 employees). Lastly, using the estimated impact on firm performance outcomes and the costs of providing and administering the support measures, the report calculates the return on investment of the programs.