The global crisis and firms’ investments in innovation

Abstract

The longer term impact of the global crisis depends on how business innovation capacities were affected. Understanding which firms suffered most is essential for developing adequate post-crisis recovery policies. This paper provides first quantitative evidence on these questions based on an original firm-level dataset for eight Latin American countries in 2008–2009. We find the crisis led many firms to stop ongoing innovation projects. Probit regression results show that firms with access to public funding were less likely to abandon these investments. Younger firms and businesses supplying foreign multinationals or suffering export shocks were more likely to do so.