This paper exploits policy discontinuities at U.S. state borders to examine the effect of R&D investments on innovative projects. We examine the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) State Match program, which offers noncompetitive grants to federally awarded SBIR Phase I projects that are eligible to compete for Phase II. Results from SBIR activity (2002–2010) indicate heterogeneous treatment effects. Notably, the positive differential effects are moderated by firms within the science and health fields and with less previous SBIR success. The State Match effectively stabilized Phase II trends in contrast to neighboring states that experienced greater declines from the concurrent recession.

The findings in this paper provide some insight into how small firms are able to innovate. Using a production function approach to relate knowledge generating inputs to innovative output, the empirical results suggest that small firms are the recipients of R&D spillovers from knowledge generated in the R&D centers of their larger counterparts and in universities. Such R&D spillovers are apparently more decisive in promoting the innovative activity of small firms than of large corporations. Copyright 1994 by MIT Press.