Tax Instruments to Stimulate Innovations in Eu Countries

Solow-Swann's neoclassical theory of economic growth shows that without technological progress, capital accumulation can only lead to a short-term increase in the growth rate of output per capita. The challenges of sustainable innovative development in many countries are coming to the fore today. The creation, dissemination and use of innovations occur in companies, universities, scientific organizations (micro-level), between economic entities within the framework of regional (meso-level) and national (macro-level) innovation systems, as well as at the international level. Innovation support is carried out at the meso-level, focuses on companies and organizations, and is evaluated at the level of the country as a whole. State support for innovation is necessary for the following reasons: 1) the ease of information transfer puts manufacturing companies in a less favorable position compared to consumer companies;2) the difficulty of obtaining a loan for R&D with the risk of information leakage and lack of confidence in the final results;3) the socio-economic system of the country receives more benefits from innovation than all companies in the aggregate. The article discusses such types of support as government subsidies and grants, tax incentives, measures for the development of human capital in an innovative environment, competition and intellectual property protection policy. In the international practice of stimulating innovation, tax incentives are used, 1) allowing to reduce R&D costs, 2) based on non-reduction of R&D expenditures and 3) preferential tax regimes derived from innovation activities. It is shown that the methodological approaches used to assess the effectiveness of tax measures are the B-index (calculated and published by the OECD by country), the analysis of the validity of tax instruments and the use of the European Tax Analyzer model - computer modeling. The analysis of innovative development showed that the European Union in terms of the number of patents, residents and non-residents, the share of researchers in the total population and the share of R&D expenditures in GDP for 2000-2022 is often inferior to China, the USA, Japan and Korea, but generally has a positive development trend. The most popular tools in the European Union countries are tax deductions, "super deductions", R&D grants and other incentives. There is no direct correlation between the number of benefits and the level of innovation development. At the same time, it is noticeable that countries using a large number of support tools are becoming attractive to innovative companies and entrepreneurs. The article analyzes the measures of state support for R&D during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of these, the most relevant are grants and subsidies, and tax benefits. The analysis of tax instruments for stimulating innovation carried out in the article may be useful in the implementation of appropriate policies in other countries.

Ensuring the safety of personnel in radiology departments during the COVID-19 epidemic

Health care workers are at high risk of coronavirus infection due to direct contact with patients and the predominant airborne COVID- 19 transmission route. Radiographers are among the first-line medical personnel to come into contact with patients who have fallen ill. Lack of a technician directly affects the radiology departments’ performance, as it requires either a search for a new employee or a radiologist to perform the examination, which slows down work and increases the risk of stopping the department. Objective. To estimate the change in the proportion of dropped out radiographers after the department division into «clean» and «dirty» zones. Material and methods. Radiographers and other medical personnel performing patient positioning (aides) were included in the study. Dropped out employees were divided into three groups: Group 1 - radiographers before the implementation of outpatient CTcenters (working in the scan room and control room at the same time from 01.02.20 to 10.04.20);Group 2 - radiographers in outpatient CT centers (did not contact patients, working in the control room, a «clean» area, from 11.04.20 to 24.06.20);Group 3 - aides (welcomed and positioned the patients on the CT table, working in the scan room, a «dirty» area, from 11.04.20 to 24.06.20). The study included medical staff in Moscow city outpatient clinics, working in computer tomography rooms from 01.02.20 to 24.06.20. We excluded outpatient CT centers employees where Group 2 had contact with Group 3 (automatically contaminating the second group) or incomplete data points from the study. Results. Before the pandemic, 90 radiographers (71 women and 19 men, mean age 52.97±5.31 years) worked in outpatient CT rooms. The total number of nursing staff during the pandemic was 201 people. In Group 2, the share of temporary leaves was 8.7%. In Groups 1 and 3, it was 42.2 and 38.8%, respectively. As a result, the proportion of dropped out radiographers after the introduction of outpatient CT centers decreased by 33.5% compared to the period before the deployment of outpatient CT centers. Conclusion. Changes in the workflow of the radiology departments during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a justified increase in the number of CT room staff by introducing aides, termination of radiographers’ contacts with patients to reduce the risk of infection, a decrease of the department shutdown risk, and also served as a basis for increasing the capacity by splitting the functionality of a single unit, which usually rests on the shoulders of a single employee. © 2020, Media Sphera Publishing Group. All rights reserved.