Subsidies to micro-entreprises: evaluation of the effects of the Provincial Law 6/99
The Provincial Law 6/99 (LP 6/99), that entered into force January the 1st, 2001, reorganized in a single framework the multiplicity of industrial policy interventions that during the years had been implemented by the Province of Trento. Therefore, the LP 6/99 gathers several forms of incentives, whose goal is to stimulate the stabilization and the growth of the economy, valuing local resources and fostering a sustainable local development. Of these incentives, those aimed to sustain firm capital investments (such as the acquisition of plots, constructions, plants, machineries, equipment, patents and infrastructures) represent the most required form of subsidy. Since microenterprises represent the vast majority of Italian firms (both at the regional and at the national level), FBK-IRVAPP has evaluated the impact of capital investment subsidies received in 2009 and 2010 on the propensity to invest, on the number of employees and on firm’s performance (revenue, value added, and labour productivity) of microenterprises. To do so, data collected in 2013 for the project “microenterprises panel” have been used, together with data from the Revenue Agency, from the APIAE database, and from the archives of the Statistical Register of Active Enterprises (ASIA). Results show that capital investment subsidies had a positive effect, in 2012, on the propensity to invest in advertising, marketing and training. These investments are complementary with respect to those financed by the incentives. The project has been carried out upon the agreement <Incentivi> signed within the Memorandum of understanding for the Realization of Statistical Analyses.