CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATION OF ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RDI INSTRUMENTS

The paper introduces some of the main ideas behind impact evaluation of research, development and innovation policy instruments. Evaluation can be a powerful learning tool when the research is relevant and of high quality. This implies, inter alia, assessing not just the process and immediate effects of public interventions on direct beneficiaries but also systematically linking these interventions to loner-term impacts, accounting for spillover effects. However, in a longer time perspective attribution (casual inference) is more problematic. Moreover, while there is a general consensus to shift from the traditional input-output approach (confining the assessment of an intervention to merely input and output additionality) to behavioral additionality (assessing the persistent behavioral change influenced by an intervention), one can see the tensions between evaluation theory and practice.