THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS R&D EXPENDITURE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

The present paper aims at providing an empirical contribution to the literature on the relationship between government and business R&D expenditure in the European Union. Based on an econometric model which estimates business expenditure as a function of government support through general expenditure and, state aid, respectively, we have found a positive correlation between these variables, suggesting that in most cases there is a complementary relationship according to which government expenditure creates an additional incentive for the business activities.