Suchergebnisse

The evaluation of industrial policy interventions has attracted increasing policy and academic attention in recent years. Despite the widespread consensus regarding the need for evaluation, the issue of how to evaluate, and the associated methodological considerations, continue to be issues of considerable debate. The authors develop an approach to estimate the net additionally of financial assistance from Enterprise Ireland to indigenously owned firms in Ireland for the period 2000 to 2002. With a sample of Enterprise Ireland assisted firms, an innovative, self-assessment, in-depth, face-to-face, interview methodology was adopted. The authors also explore a way of incorporating the indirect benefits of assistance into derived deadweight estimates—an issue which is seldom discussed in the context of deadweight estimates. They conclude by reflecting on the key methodological lessons learned from the evaluation process, and highlight some pertinent evaluation issues which should form the focus of much future discussion in this field of research.

One of the key policy objectives of government at national and regional level, is to overcome the constraints preventing local industry achieving greater competitiveness in the international market-place. This paper examines the impact of grant assistance to Northern Ireland small firms delivered over the period 1994–97 by the former Local Enterprise Development Unit through its Growth Business Support Programme (GBSP). Previous work by the authors showed that there was some tentative evidence to suggest a link between employment growth and grant aid provided to very small firms (fewer than 10 employees) assisted under the GBSP. The central objective of the empirical work reported in this paper is to extend the previous analysis by understanding the extent to which the value of financial assistance influences growth (employment, turnover, and productivity measures) and if differential impacts arise depending on the nature and timing (lag structures) of the grant assistance.

Der Aufsatz untersucht den Umfang regionaler Unterschiede im Wachstum kleiner Firmen im Vereinigten Königreich, die im Zeitraum 1994 bis 1997 auf den Gebieten der Dienstleistungen und dem produzierenden Gewerbe tätig waren. Es wird versucht, eine theoretische Grundstruktur zur Erklärung dieser Unterschiede zu entwickeln und für einen empirischen Test in Verbindung mit der Anwendung mehrfach variabler Techniken zu sorgen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass besonders im Dienstleistungssektor die Art der äußeren Geschäftsumgebung einen wichtigen Teil der Erklärung der beobachteten räumlichen Unterschiede im Wachstum von Kleinbetrieben im Zeitraum 1994-97 darstellt. Diese Befunde haben wichtige Implikationen für Eingriffe auf regionaler und überregionaler Ebene, die dazu dienen, die Aussichten kleiner Firmen zu verbessern. Die Herstellergleichung z.B. stellte die positive Rolle der regionalen finanziellen Unterstützung bei der Wachstumsförderung heraus, während der Einfluss von direkten Auslandsinvestierungen des Dienstleistungssektors einen bedeutenden Faktor in Wachstum kleiner Dienstleistungsfirmen darstellte. (IAB2)

The authors use VAT data to shed light on the pattern of variation in business birth rates across the local authority areas of the United Kingdom. They seek to provide policymakers with a more realistic assessment of the extent to which their interventions might be able to affect the rate of new-business formation. An empirical investigation of the separate impacts of sector, specialisation, and space, suggests that the share of business-services businesses in the business stock seems to play the largest role in accounting for the spatial distribution of the business birth rate across the United Kingdom; and that this share is significantly influenced by the spatial pattern of population density. Policies which involve setting 'targets' for business birth rates need to take the local 'context' into account and, perhaps more importantly, aspirations may have to change: it seems unlikely that stimulation of business birth rates should realistically be expected to close the 'enterprise gap' between different parts of the country.