Fund substitution and the incentive effect of public investment subsidies

This paper analyses the observed phenomenon of public for private fund substitution in industrial assistance, by examining the public and private sector funding of investment under different assumptions about the nature of the private capital marker. This bears an the effectiveness of industrial subsidies, and has implications for welfare and the design of optimal assistance contracts. It is shown that fund substitution depends crucially on the elasticity of investment with respect to the user cost of capital in the without-subsidy position, and on the nature of any amount and rate constraints on the assistance contract.