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Innovation, Development and National Indices

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Abstract

The paper shows for 127 countries that innovation correlates positively with human development, GDP per capita, education, IQ, democracy, and military expenditure per capita, negatively with inequality Gini, and more negatively with war. Regression shows with statistical significance that innovation increases with democracy and decreases with war, increases with human development and decreases with inequality Gini, and increases with democracy, military expenditure per capita, education, GDP per capita, and IQ. Innovation is modeled logistically with carrying capacity determined by the eight indices. Thereafter democracy and war are modeled as dynamic processes coupled with the innovation process. We illustrate how innovation, democracy and war change through time depending on various characteristics. The analysis tools enable countries to assess how their processes interact with innovation.

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Notes

  1. Airplanes, tanks, and mechanized infantry enabled concentrated firepower in World War II, and further development of these technologies. The canon, invented in China in the twelfth century, has impacted many wars in subsequent developments, and related industrialization.

  2. The war index W is actually a peace index, but since low values express much peace, we interpret as a war index to ensure consistency with the other indices.

  3. Note also almost independence, − 0.054, between military expenditure per capita M/c and inequality Gini, which supports Lin and Hamid’s (2009) finding of no causal relationship in either direction between military spending and inequality. In contrast, Raza et al. (2017) find for Pakistan that military expenditure increases inequality.

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Correspondence to Kjell Hausken.

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Hausken, K., Moxnes, J.F. Innovation, Development and National Indices. Soc Indic Res 141, 1165–1188 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-1873-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-1873-8

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