Abstract

Governments' financial constraints, on one side, and the need of support by private firms in facing the globalised competition and the actual economic crisis, on the other one, ask for the revision and rationalization of industrial public policies. Now, more than ever, it is important to highlight priorities and potential synergies among different objectives of public subsidies. From this point of view, looking for the relationship between innovation and internationalization subsidies and their combined impact on economic well-being and labour productivity, this paper estimates the effect of the main funds for innovation and internationalization at regional level. The analysis, regarding grants allocated between 1999 and 2006, suggests that the interaction of innovation and internationalization policies positively affect regional economic performance. Thus, a well-coordinated design of these policies is needed.