Tax Incentives, Tax Expenditures Theories in R&D: The Case of Sweden

This article investigates whether public funds should support R&D and if so, how such support should be designed in order to be efficient and to comply with the legal requirements stated in EU law and in domestic budget law. The article puts the emphasis on tax expenditure and, in particular, on tax incentives. The findings show that Member States should only subsidize projects where the social benefit exceeds the private benefit. However, in reality, such selection proves impossible, and even if it was possible, EU State aid law could prohibit it.