The role of talent in the economic development of countries in the modern world

The purpose of this article is to empirically test the role of talent in the economic development of countries in the modern world. As the main research method, the authors use regression analysis, which involved variables characterizing the talent competitiveness of countries, as well as indicators of countries’ economic development. The authors use two indicators to empirically measure the economic development of countries in the modern world. The first is a static indicator, GDP per capita, which measures the economic performance of the world’s countries. Second, the dynamic indicator of the average change in GDP per capita over the previous 10 years measures the economic growth of the world’s countries. Correlation analysis is used as an additional research method. The results showed that talent is a stable and practically the main determinant of such an important element of the economic development of countries as their achieved state of economic development. At the same time, the talent competitiveness of countries is not the engine of their short-term economic growth. For economic growth, it is enough to attract talent from outside, but for the economic development of the modern world’s countries to be sustainable, it is also necessary to be able to grow talents and create conditions for their efficient work within the country. All of these elements are included in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index. Based on empirical results, the authors propose to replace the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) with the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) in research practice. Then the talent will also be included in the conceptual understanding of countries’ competitiveness in the modern world.