The role of innovative start-ups in contributing to aggregate economic dynamism has attracted increased attention in recent years. While this has translated into several public policies explicitly targeting them, there is little evidence on their effectiveness. This article provides a comprehensive evaluation of the “Start-up Act,” a policy intervention aimed at supporting innovative start-ups in Italy. We construct a unique database encompassing detailed information on firm balance sheets, employment, firm demographics, patents and bank–firm relationships for all Italian start-ups. We use conditional difference-in-differences and instrumental variable strategies to evaluate the impact of the “Start-up Act” on firm performance. Results show that the policy induces a significant increase in several firm outcomes whereas no effect is detected in patenting propensity and survival chances. We also document that the policy alleviates financial frictions characterizing innovative start-ups through the provision of tax credits for equity and a public guarantee scheme which, respectively, trigger an increase in the probability of receiving VC and accessing bank credit.

中文翻译：

---

支持创新创业：对意大利“创业法”的评估

近年来，创新型初创企业在促进整体经济活力方面的作用越来越受到关注。尽管这已转化为明确针对他们的多项公共政策，但几乎没有证据表明其有效性。本文对“初创企业法”进行了全面评估，这是一项旨在支持意大利创新型初创企业的政策干预措施。我们构建了一个独特的数据库，其中包含有关所有意大利初创企业的公司资产负债表、就业、公司人口统计、专利和银行-公司关系的详细信息。我们使用条件差异和工具变量策略来评估“启动法案”对公司绩效的影响。结果表明，该政策显着增加了几个公司的成果，而在专利倾向和生存机会方面没有发现任何影响。我们还记录了该政策通过提供股权税收抵免和公共担保计划来缓解创新型初创企业的金融摩擦，这分别引发了获得风险投资和获得银行信贷的可能性增加。