Sandbox+2

Additions to Finance for Innovation

These references to loan guarantee programs may be of help.

UK. @http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/press_24_12.htm UK. @http://www.rbs.co.uk/business/borrowing/g1/government-lending-support/firms.ashx EU. http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/finance/borrowing/ loan - guarantees /index_en.htm Canada. @http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/csbfp-pfpec.nsf/eng/h_la00374.html USA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Administration#Loan_Guarantee_Program Default study. @http://cec.shfc.edu.cn/download/20100925104344_509489603784.pdf Social Impact Bonds http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/655fab01-83b9-49eb-b856-a1f61bc9e6ca-small.pdf

Design thinking for Social innovation http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/design_thinking_for_social_innovation

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTTPA/Resources/EassonZoltPaper.pdf Tax Incentives

LinkedIn discussion about how to grow a business without investors [should be included for balance in Finance for Innovation section]

Incentives and Investments: Evidence and Policy Implications https://www.wbginvestmentclimate.org/uploads/IncentivesandInvestments.pdf

Fiscal Incentives for Investment and Innovation Anwar Shah, World Bank Issues in Revenue Administration, Tax Compliance and Combating Corruption A World Bank Workshop for Senior Policy Makers and Practitioners in Sub-Sahara Africa Cape Town, South Africa, March 2-4, 2006 http://siteresources.worldbank.org/PSGLP/Resources/7FiscalIncentives.pdf [slides]

See also AIS, Greg H report

US Proposal http://www.forbes.com/sites/deanzerbe/2011/09/02/top-7-ideas-for-tax-incentives-to-create-jobs/

R&D Tax Incentives Singapore http://www.nexia.com/RDtaxincentivesinSingapore

Tax Incentives for Business &D http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/sti_scoreboard-2011-en/05/05/index.html?contentType=&itemId=/content/chapter/sti_scoreboard-2011-48-en&containerItemId=/content/serial/20725345&accessItemIds=/content/book/sti_scoreboard-2011-en&mimeType=text/html

R&D Tax Incentives Around the World http://www.aicpa.org/publications/taxadviser/2012/august/pages/clinic-story-03.aspx

R&D Tax Credits: They Work! Will Policymaker’s Listen to the Evidence? [US case]
http://www.innovationfiles.org/rd-tax-credits-they-work-will-policy-makers-to-listen-to-the-evidence/

Viewpoint: 'The R&D credit doesn't work' [US case]
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4235663/The-R-D-credit-doesn-t-work

Testimony by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development United States Senate Committee on Finance Tuesday, September 20, 2011 Tax Reform Options: Incentives for Innovation The International Experience with R&D Tax Incentives http://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/OECD%20SFC%20Hearing%20testimony%209%2020%2011.pdf

=Fiscal incentives for investment and innovation= http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1995/12/01/000009265_3961219113928/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf [WB book 31 Mb]

Investment promotion is an important objective of tax policy in developing and industrial countries alike. Governments are active in using tax policy instruments to promote investment, but little information is available to policymakers in developing countries on how effective these measures are in achieving their stated objectives. A careful assessment of past practices can provide data essential for a redesign of public policy measures. This volume presents the outcome of a research project undertaken by the World Bank's Policy Research Department. The project's purpose was to examine the effects of fiscal incentives on investment in developing and emerging market economies. This research was part of a larger effort by the department to develop policy guidance for reform of fiscal systems, using rigorous conceptual and empirical analysis. Taken together, this analysis provides a sound basis for identifying the types of incentives that may work and the situations in which their use is justified.

Societal dynamics and fragility : engaging societies in responding to fragile situations (check re market interventions)
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/12/17053575/societal-dynamics-fragility-engaging-societies-responding-fragile-situations.

Learning from the experiments that never happened : lessons from trying to conduct randomized evaluations of matching grant programs in Africa
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/12/21/000158349_20121221103809/Rendered/PDF/wps6296.pdf

Matching grants are one of the most common policy instruments used by developing country governments to try to foster technological upgrading, innovation, exports, use of business development services and other activities leading to firm growth. However, since they involve subsidizing firms, the risk is that they could crowd out private investment, subsidizing activities that firms were planning to undertake anyway, or lead to pure private gains, rather than generating the public gains that justify government intervention. As a result, rigorous evaluation of the effects of such programs is important. The authors attempted to implement randomized experiments to evaluate the impact of seven matching grant programs offered in six African countries, but in each case were unable to complete an experimental evaluation. One critique of randomized experiments is publication bias, whereby only those experiments with "interesting" results get published. The hope is to mitigate this bias by learning from the experiments that never happened. This paper describes the three main proximate reasons for lack of implementation: continued project delays, politicians not willing to allow random assignment, and low program take-up; and then delves into the underlying causes of these occurring. Political economy, overly stringent eligibility criteria that do not take account of where value-added may be highest, a lack of attention to detail in "last mile" issues, incentives facing project implementation staff, and the way impact evaluations are funded, and all help explain the failure of randomization. Lessons are drawn from these experiences for both the implementation and the possible evaluation of future projects.

Avoiding middle-income growth traps
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/11/21/000333038_20121121005934/Rendered/PDF/NonAsciiFileName0.pdf

Since the 1950s, rapid growth has allowed a significant number of countries to reach middle-income status; yet, very few have made the additional leap needed to become high-income economies. Rather, many developing countries have become caught in what has been called a middle-income trap, characterized by a sharp deceleration in growth and in the pace of productivity increases. Drawing on the findings of a recently released working paper (Agenor and Canuto 2012), as well as a growing body of research on growth slowdowns, this note provides an analytical characterization of 'middle-income traps' as stable, low-growth economic equilibrium where talent is misallocated and innovation stagnates. To counteract middle-income traps, there are a number of public policies that governments can pursue, such as improving access to advanced infrastructure, enhancing the protection of property rights, and reforming labor markets to reduce rigidities all implemented within a context where technological learning and research and development (R&D) are central to enhancing innovation. Such policies not only explain why some economies particularly in East Asia were able to avoid the middle-income trap, but are also instructive for other developing countries seeking to move up the income ladder and reach high-income status.

Financial sector development in Africa : opportunities and challenges
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/11/22/000386194_20121122013649/Rendered/PDF/NonAsciiFileName0.pdf

Africa's financial systems face challenges across many dimensions, as discussed in the report financing Africa: through the crisis and beyond. The analysis in that report was based partly on several detailed background papers that are included in this volume. The next six chapters are written by experts in their respective areas and provide an in-depth analysis of these challenges and present possible solutions. In this introduction, the authors provide an overview of the different chapters and how they are related to each other and the main volume. The three chapters in first part focus on key challenges concerned with access to financial services, including financial and operational deficiencies in the microfinance market, reaping the benefits from the technological revolution of retail banking, and deepening and broadening agricultural finance across Africa. The three chapters thus each cover different aspects with a different focus, ranging from an institutional approach to a focus on innovation as a driver of financial broadening to an important element of financial infrastructure to a specific sector. The second part includes the fourth chapter, it involves documents the sizable need for additional housing in many African countries, based on these countries' continuous population growth and an ongoing urbanization trend. The third part includes fifth chapter, which discuss the repercussions of regulatory reforms in Europe and North America for African regulators as well as local challenges. The fourth part includes the sixth chapter, which is the final chapter of this volume. It discusses the politics of financial sector reform in Africa and, more specifically, the space needed for an activist role for government to help create the markets and coordination mechanisms necessary for financial markets to deepen and broaden.

Understanding policy change : how to apply political economy concepts in practice
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/11/22/000333037_20121122011219/Rendered/PDF/NonAsciiFileName0.pdf

How does the social and political context in which decision-makers find themselves in affect their ability to realize their reform goals? How does this context facilitate or inhibit specific reform agendas and projects? How can we operationalize and evaluate these risks and opportunities in order to decide what reforms and projects are feasible given the circumstances? This book provides the reader with the full panoply of political economy tools and concepts necessary to understand, analyze, and integrate how political and social factors may influence the success or failure of their policy goals. Starting with the empirical puzzle of why corruption, rent seeking, and a lack of good governance emerge and persist in a host of countries and sectors the book reviews how collective action problems and the role of institutions, as well as a host of ancillary political economy concepts can affect the feasibility of different projects. However, the book is not just a one stop shop of political economy concepts, but also provides practical advice on how to organize and use this information via the introduction of stakeholder mapping tools and the development of an actionable political economy toolkit. In other words researchers, graduate students, and policy practitioners interested in understanding, the what, the why and the how of policy reform will find this book an essential tool.

[cross-subsidization - innovative financing] [entry point #8]
http://www.dktinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/DKTWhitePaperInnovativeFinancing.pdf

=Improving University Technology Transfer and Commercialization= http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2012/12/05%20tech%20transfer%20west/DarrellUniversity%20Tech%20Transfer.pdf

The federal government invests $147 billion in U.S. research and development, with $90 billion going to institutions of higher learning to underwrite faculty research projects and the training of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. However, based on licensing fees, federal dollars generate a very small rate of return on investment. In this new paper, Darrell West examines that low ROI and argues that part of the problem is that the focus on patents, licenses, and startups places too much emphasis on outputs as opposed to outcomes. Those indicators represent proxy measures of getting material to the market as opposed to whether particular research ideas actually are having an impact and being successful in the marketplace. If a patent is awarded, a license issued, or a start-up business established, it does not guarantee that the product is used or generates revenue. This paper reviews how universities report their commercialization activities, the need for better performance metrics, and ways to improve their disclosures and overall performance. Using an analysis of technology transfer annual reports, West argues that universities should provide more detailed financial performance data. By offering more complete material on money in and out, it would help evaluate how well universities are commercializing their research ideas and whether alternative models would produce better results. There needs to be better understanding of the innovation differences across academic fields, and increased emphasis on university transparency, accountability, and overall performance. West gives specific recommendations for ways to do better on technology transfer and commercialization, including standardized reporting forms, equity investments and greater transparency.