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The Law for the Promotion of Research and Development (WBSO) came into effect in 1994. The WBSO is a fiscal scheme that reduces the wage costs of R&D employees by reducing payroll taxes and national insurance contributions. The condition is that it involves technological R&D work focused on products, processes, and software development that are new for the company. Additionally, technostarters are extra incentivised to carry out R&D activities under the WBSO.
The idea is that by lowering the main expense for conducting R&D activities, companies are further encouraged to carry out more R&D. R&D is seen as an activity with significant private and societal benefits that greatly contributes to the innovativeness and competitiveness of the Dutch economy.
With 73,145 applications from 24,754 companies in the period 1994-2001 and a budget of €337 million in 2001, the WBSO has become by far the most important measure in the Netherlands aimed at stimulating R&D activities in companies in terms of reach and budget.
Given the objective of the WBSO, the question of whether and to what extent the WBSO leads to more R&D activities in companies is central to this evaluation. This is referred to as the first-order effect. In addition, the evaluation aims to provide insight into: the extent to which the conditions that led to the establishment of the WBSO in 1994 are still relevant; effects on the results of R&D on innovativeness (the so-called second-order effects) and business performance (third-order effects); target group reach of the WBSO; perception of the implementation of the WBSO, including the use of intermediaries/subsidy advisors and the perception of WBSO users regarding possible adjustments to the WBSO scheme.
