IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v120y2019i1d10.1007_s11192-019-03118-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can scientific productivity impact the economic complexity of countries?

Author

Listed:
  • Henry Laverde-Rojas

    (Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz)

  • Juan C. Correa

    (Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz)

Abstract

The so-called index of economic complexity, based on nations’ exports, was initially proposed as an alternative to traditional macroeconomic metrics just as the scientific productivity of countries which has also been deemed as a better predictor of economic growth. Adequate scrutiny to the relationship between these two factors, however, remains little explored. This paper aims to examine the relationship between economic complexity and scientific production while identifying which areas of knowledge hold to this relationship best. By applying panel data techniques to a sample of 91 countries between 2003 and 2014, we found that scientific productivity in basic sciences and engineering has a significant positive effect on the economic complexity of countries. This relationship, however, only remains stable for high-income countries, where university-industry-government capabilities interact to stimulate and generate innovation and strategies for economic growth of firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Henry Laverde-Rojas & Juan C. Correa, 2019. "Can scientific productivity impact the economic complexity of countries?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(1), pages 267-282, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:120:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-019-03118-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-019-03118-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-019-03118-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-019-03118-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen Bond & Anke Hoeffler & Jonathan Temple, 2001. "GMM Estimation of Empirical Growth Models," Economics Papers 2001-W21, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    2. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2015. "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3150-3182, October.
    3. Alonso-Borrego, Cesar & Arellano, Manuel, 1999. "Symmetrically Normalized Instrumental-Variable Estimation Using Panel Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 17(1), pages 36-49, January.
    4. Cesar A. Hidalgo & Ricardo Hausmann, 2009. "The Building Blocks of Economic Complexity," Papers 0909.3890, arXiv.org.
    5. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    6. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    7. Sweet, Cassandra Mehlig & Eterovic Maggio, Dalibor Sacha, 2015. "Do Stronger Intellectual Property Rights Increase Innovation?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 665-677.
    8. Klaus Jaffe & Mario Caicedo & Marcos Manzanares & Mario Gil & Alfredo Rios & Astrid Florez & Claudia Montoreano & Vicente Davila, 2013. "Productivity in Physical and Chemical Science Predicts the Future Economic Growth of Developing Countries Better than Other Popular Indices," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(6), pages 1-10, June.
    9. Chung Joo Chung & Han Woo Park, 2014. "Mapping Triple Helix innovation in developing and transitional economies: webometrics, scientometrics, and informetrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 99(1), pages 1-4, April.
    10. Roula Inglesi-Lotz & Mehmet Balcilar & Rangan Gupta, 2014. "Time-varying causality between research output and economic growth in US," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 100(1), pages 203-216, July.
    11. Abdulnasser Hatemi-J & Ahdi N. Ajmi & Ghassen El Montasser & Roula Inglesi-Lotz & Rangan Gupta, 2016. "Research output and economic growth in G7 countries: new evidence from asymmetric panel causality testing," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(24), pages 2301-2308, May.
    12. Elham Erfanian & Amir B. Ferreira Neto, 2017. "Scientific output: labor or capital intensive? An analysis for selected countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(1), pages 461-482, July.
    13. Tuan V. Nguyen & Ly T. Pham, 2011. "Scientific output and its relationship to knowledge economy: an analysis of ASEAN countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 89(1), pages 107-117, October.
    14. Štěpán Jurajda & Stanislav Kozubek & Daniel Münich & Samuel Škoda, 2017. "Scientific publication performance in post-communist countries: still lagging far behind," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(1), pages 315-328, July.
    15. Peter Vinkler, 2018. "Structure of the scientific research and science policy," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(2), pages 737-756, February.
    16. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    17. Hartmann, Dominik & Guevara, Miguel R. & Jara-Figueroa, Cristian & Aristarán, Manuel & Hidalgo, César A., 2017. "Linking Economic Complexity, Institutions, and Income Inequality," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 75-93.
    18. Clarke, Kevin A., 2007. "A Simple Distribution-Free Test for Nonnested Model Selection," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 347-363, July.
    19. Chan-Yuan Wong & Hon-Ngen Fung, 2017. "Science-technology-industry correlative indicators for policy targeting on emerging technologies: exploring the core competencies and promising industries of aspirant economies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(2), pages 841-867, May.
    20. Ricardo Hausmann & César Hidalgo, 2011. "The network structure of economic output," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 309-342, December.
    21. Juan C. Correa & Klaus Jaffe, 2015. "Corruption and Wealth: Unveiling a national prosperity syndrome in Europe," Papers 1604.00283, arXiv.org.
    22. Henry Laverde-Rojas & Juan C Correa & Klaus Jaffe & Mario I Caicedo, 2019. "Are average years of education losing predictive power for economic growth? An alternative measure through structural equations modeling," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-21, March.
    23. Djuro Kutlača & Dragan Babić & Lazar Živković & Dijana Štrbac, 2015. "Analysis of quantitative and qualitative indicators of SEE countries scientific output," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(1), pages 247-265, January.
    24. Miguel R. Guevara & Dominik Hartmann & Manuel Aristarán & Marcelo Mendoza & César A. Hidalgo, 2016. "The research space: using career paths to predict the evolution of the research output of individuals, institutions, and nations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(3), pages 1695-1709, December.
    25. David Roodman, 2009. "A Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(1), pages 135-158, February.
    26. Steve Brito & Mr. Nicolas E Magud & Mr. Sebastian Sosa, 2018. "Real Exchange Rates, Economic Complexity, and Investment," IMF Working Papers 2018/107, International Monetary Fund.
    27. Stephen Bond & Anke Hoeffler, 2001. "GMM Estimation of Empirical Growth Models," Economics Series Working Papers 2001-W21, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    28. Anastassios Pouris & Anthipi Pouris, 2009. "The state of science and technology in Africa (2000–2004): A scientometric assessment," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 79(2), pages 297-309, May.
    29. Felipe, Jesus & Kumar, Utsav & Abdon, Arnelyn & Bacate, Marife, 2012. "Product complexity and economic development," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 36-68.
    30. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    31. Saad Ahmed Javed & Sifeng Liu, 2018. "Predicting the research output/growth of selected countries: application of Even GM (1, 1) and NDGM models," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(1), pages 395-413, April.
    32. R. Inglesi-Lotz & A. Pouris, 2013. "The influence of scientific research output of academics on economic growth in South Africa: an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) application," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 95(1), pages 129-139, April.
    33. Windmeijer, Frank, 2005. "A finite sample correction for the variance of linear efficient two-step GMM estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 25-51, May.
    34. Sakiru Adebola Solarin & Yuen Yee Yen, 2016. "A global analysis of the impact of research output on economic growth," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(2), pages 855-874, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mauricio Alviar & Andrés García-Suaza & Laura Ramírez-Gómez & Simón Villegas-Velásquez, 2021. "Measuring the Contribution of the Bioeconomy: The Case of Colombia and Antioquia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-26, February.
    2. Kilian Buehling & Matthias Geissler & Dorothea Strecker, 2022. "Free access to scientific literature and its influence on the publishing activity in developing countries: The effect of Sci‐Hub in the field of mathematics," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(9), pages 1336-1355, September.
    3. Klaus Jaffe & Enrique ter Horst & Laura H Gunn & Juan Diego Zambrano & German Molina, 2020. "A network analysis of research productivity by country, discipline, and wealth," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Iryna Kalenyuk & Liudmyla Tsymbal, 2021. "Assessment of the intellectual component in economic development," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 4793-4816, June.
    5. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2024. "The quality of Aid for Trade flows and economic complexity," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 705-747, October.
    6. Hermann Ndoya & Bruno Emmanuel Ongo Nkoa & Francis Hypolite Kemeze & Tii N. Nchofoung, 2024. "Financial development and economic complexity: The role of country stability," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(2), pages 415-447, April.
    7. Maurya, Garima & Sahu, Sohini, 2022. "Cross-country variations in economic complexity: The role of individualism," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    8. Pablo Jack & Jeremias Lachman & Andrés López, 2021. "Scientific knowledge production and economic catching-up: an empirical analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 4565-4587, June.
    9. Liu, Haiyue & Wang, Cangyu & Zhang, Qin & Wang, Yile, 2024. "The impact of Chinese overseas industrial parks on the productive capability of BRI host countries," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    10. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2023. "The Quality of Aid for Trade Flows and Economic Complexity," EconStor Preprints 271538, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    11. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2022. "Effect of the utilization of non-reciprocal trade preferences offered by the QUAD countries on beneficiary countries' economic complexity," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    12. Patelli, Aurelio & Napolitano, Lorenzo & Cimini, Giulio & Gabrielli, Andrea, 2023. "Geography of science: Competitiveness and inequality," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    13. Chadi Azmeh, 2022. "Quantity and quality of research output and economic growth: empirical investigation for all research areas in the MENA countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(11), pages 6147-6163, November.
    14. Khairul Amri & Raja Masbar & B. S. Nazamuddin & Hasdi Aimon, 2024. "Does Unemployment Moderate the Effect of Government Expenditure on Poverty? A Cross-Provinces Data Evidence from Indonesia," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 2, pages 92-113.
    15. Henri Njangang & Youssouf Nvuh-Njoya, 2023. "Unravelling the link between democracy and economic complexity: fresh evidence from the Varieties of Democracy data," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 1-32, March.
    16. Khan, Muhammad Salar, 2022. "Absorptive capacities and economic growth in low- and middle-income economies," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 156-188.
    17. Gregoire Mariethoz & Frédéric Herman & Amelie Dreiss, 2021. "The imaginary carrot: no correlation between raising funds and research productivity in geosciences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2401-2407, March.
    18. Hossain, Mohammad Razib & Dash, Devi Prasad & Das, Narasingha & Ullah, Ehsan & Hossain, Md. Emran, 2024. "Green energy transition in OECD region through the lens of economic complexity and environmental technology: A method of moments quantile regression perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 365(C).
    19. Juan C. Correa & Henry Laverde-Rojas & Julian Tejada & Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos, 2022. "The Sci-Hub effect on papers’ citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(1), pages 99-126, January.
    20. Brice Kamguia & Joseph Keneck‐Massil & Henri Njangang & Sosson Tadadjeu, 2024. "Sophistication gap between countries: The effect of research and development expenditure," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(3), pages 739-778, July.
    21. Elmira Janavi & Mohammad Javad Mansourzadeh & Mojgan Samandar Ali Eshtehardi, 2020. "A methodology for developing scientific diversification strategy of countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 2229-2264, December.
    22. Alvarado, Rafael & Murshed, Muntasir & Cifuentes-Faura, Javier & Işık, Cem & Razib Hossain, Mohammad & Tillaguango, Brayan, 2023. "Nexuses between rent of natural resources, economic complexity, and technological innovation: The roles of GDP, human capital and civil liberties," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    23. Tânia Pinto & Aurora A. C. Teixeira, 2020. "The impact of research output on economic growth by fields of science: a dynamic panel data analysis, 1980–2016," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(2), pages 945-978, May.
    24. Hamid Sepehrdoust & Mohsen Tartar & Razieh Davarikish, 2021. "Does Scientific Productivity Stimulate Intensified Technology Exports in Developing Economies," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(4), pages 2111-2135, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2022. "Effect of the utilization of non-reciprocal trade preferences offered by the QUAD countries on beneficiary countries' economic complexity," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Tânia Pinto & Aurora A. C. Teixeira, 2020. "The impact of research output on economic growth by fields of science: a dynamic panel data analysis, 1980–2016," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(2), pages 945-978, May.
    3. Yerrabati, Sridevi, 2022. "Does vulnerable employment alleviate poverty in developing countries?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    4. Dombi, Ákos & Grigoriadis, Theocharis, 2020. "State history and the finance-growth nexus: Evidence from transition economies," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(1).
    5. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2021. "Effect of the Utilization of Non-Reciprocal Trade Preferences offered by the QUAD on Economic Growth in Beneficiary Countries," EconStor Preprints 242848, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    6. Gründler, Klaus & Scheuermeyer, Philipp, 2015. "Income inequality, economic growth, and the effect of redistribution," W.E.P. - Würzburg Economic Papers 95, University of Würzburg, Department of Economics.
    7. Yoruk, Esin & Radosevic, Slavo & Fischer, Bruno, 2023. "Technological profiles, upgrading and the dynamics of growth: Country-level patterns and trajectories across distinct stages of development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(8).
    8. Gründler, Klaus & Krieger, Tommy, 2016. "Democracy and growth: Evidence from a machine learning indicator," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(S), pages 85-107.
    9. Zheng, Xinye & Li, Fanghua & Song, Shunfeng & Yu, Yihua, 2013. "Central government's infrastructure investment across Chinese regions: A dynamic spatial panel data approach," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 264-276.
    10. Samuel Fosu & Albert Danso & Henry Agyei-Boapeah & Collins G. Ntim & Emmanuel Adegbite, 2020. "Credit information sharing and loan default in developing countries: the moderating effect of banking market concentration and national governance quality," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 55-103, July.
    11. Sauquet, Alexandre & Lecocq, Franck & Delacote, Philippe & Caurla, Sylvain & Barkaoui, Ahmed & Garcia, Serge, 2011. "Estimating Armington elasticities for sawnwood and application to the French Forest Sector Model," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 771-781.
    12. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2022. "Financial development and tax revenue in developing countries: investigating the international trade channel," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-26, January.
    13. Na Hou & Bo Chen, 2013. "Military Expenditure And Economic Growth In Developing Countries: Evidence From System Gmm Estimates," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 183-193, June.
    14. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2023. "Do unilateral trade preferences help reduce poverty in beneficiary countries?," International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 249-288, February.
    15. Fagiolo, Giorgio & Santoni, Gianluca, 2015. "Human-mobility networks, country income, and labor productivity," Network Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(3), pages 377-407, September.
    16. Trung V. Vu, 2022. "Does institutional quality foster economic complexity? The fundamental drivers of productive capabilities," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 1571-1604, September.
    17. Sena Kimm Gnangnon, 2022. "Effect of economic complexity on services export diversification: do foreign direct investment inflows matter?," International Journal of Development Issues, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(3), pages 413-437, June.
    18. Ünal Töngür & Adem Yavuz Elveren, 2017. "The nexus of economic growth, military expenditures, and income inequality," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1821-1842, July.
    19. Beqiraj, Elton & Fedeli, Silvia & Giuriato, Luisa, 2020. "Policy tolerance of economic crime? An empirical analysis of the effect of counterfeiting on Italian trade," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Filippo Berti Mecocci & Amir Maghssudipour & Marco Bellandi, 2022. "The effect of cultural and creative production on human capital: Evidence from European regions," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(6), pages 1263-1287, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:120:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-019-03118-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.