The impact of research and development on the economies of countries of the world: A statistical analysis

Effective management of national science and research is on the constant rise, so the task of revealing how economic “return” from the research and development sector can be maximized is becoming more and more relevant. The article examines the mutual influence of the development of science and the funding of research and development in 97 countries around the world, on the one hand, and their national per capita incomes, on the other hand. A wide range of indicators is used, including patent activity, research and development expenditures, the number of researchers and the number of Scopus-indexed publications by subject area (relative to the population of countries). Among all the subject areas studied, the number of publications in economics is most closely related to the level of GDP per capita (PPP). We then use linear multiple regression to study the relation between the number of Scopus-indexed publications in economics and expenditures on research and development. A comparison of simulated data with real data shows that oil and gas producing countries (including Russia) demonstrate an economic level higher than expected. The leading world economies (USA, China, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain) are well described by our resulting model. Ensuring high expenditure on research and development is of paramount importance for modern economic growth. In addition, an overall high level of publication activity is important, with particular attention to the development of research in economics.