Should governments increase their efforts in R&D public funding during recession periods? The objective of the present study is to compare the effect of public aid to business R&D on technological inputs and outputs through the economic cycle. We contribute to this literature by examining the effect of one specific instrument of direct public support: selective loans for firms’ R&D projects. For the analysis, we consider Spanish firms supported through this kind of instrument for the periods 2002–2005 and 2010–2012. Our results suggest that the hypothesis of full crowding out of private R&D is rejected in both cycle periods, expansion and recession: public support has positive effects on the resources devoted to R&D activities. However, the effect of public support on some technological outputs depends on the cycle phase: firms supported by selective loans during the crisis are more likely to obtain product innovations.

政府是否应该在经济衰退期间加大对研发公共资金的投入？本研究的目的是比较公共援助对企业研发的影响在整个经济周期中对技术投入和产出的影响。我们通过研究一种特定的直接公共支持工具的影响来为该文献做出贡献：为公司的研发项目提供选择性贷款。为了进行分析，我们考虑在 2002-2005 年和 2010-2012 年期间通过这种工具支持的西班牙公司。我们的研究结果表明，完全挤出私人研发的假设在扩张期和衰退期都被拒绝：公共支持对研发活动的资源有积极影响。然而，公共支持对某些技术产出的影响取决于周期阶段：