Evaluation of complementarity effect of innovation policies: Venture certification and inno-biz certification in korea

In this paper, we analyze effects of overlapping policy support. Specifically, we examine two Korean policies related to innovative SMEs, Venture certification and Inno-Biz certification, which have similar goals, targets and benefits. Methodologically, we use the difference in difference method with the propensity score matching method to reduce the selection bias that can occur in policy impact assessment studies. Our results show that in this case of overlapping homogeneous policies, Venture certification and Inno-Biz certification, the complementarity effect is negative. That is, simultaneously supporting these two policies produces no synergy. This result implies that rather than offering multiple supports through double certification of a single firm, offering Inno-Bizcertification to non-supported firms could better increase performance. In other words, policy makers have to consider overlapping policy support before implementing any new policies, and they should not support homogeneous policies for a single group of firms.