Structural readiness for innovation-driven international economic cooperation: A descriptive network-based cross-country assessment

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractInnovation and digitalization increasingly shape the national capabilities supporting international economic cooperation, extending the analytical focus beyond trade and financial flows. This study aims to assess country-level structural readiness for innovation-driven international economic cooperation and identify differences across income groups. Published composite indices and World Economic Outlook indicators are examined through descriptive Pearson correlation analysis, comparative analysis, and indicator-correlation network mapping for six benchmark years: 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025, subject to indicator availability. Correlations are estimated across individual countries within the World Bank income groups applicable to each year.The averaged 2020/2025 networks retain 46 index–macroeconomic relationships for low-income countries, 49 for lower-middle-income countries, 48 for upper-middle-income countries, and 15 for high-income countries at an absolute correlation threshold of 0.40. Of these, 44, 48, 47, and 14 relationships, respectively, are positive. Low- and lower-middle-income configurations are predominantly organized around GDP per capita, whereas upper-middle-income configurations encompass a broader range of macroeconomic variables. High-income associations are more selective and distributed across the output gap, government debt, exports, savings, and GDP per capita. Within these averaged networks, network readiness is positively associated with constant-price GDP per capita, with coefficients of 0.66 for low-income countries and 0.63 for upper-middle-income countries. Trade and globalization associations vary across groups and periods.The findings indicate differentiated structural-readiness configurations across income groups, with comparisons constrained by unequal indicator coverage. The framework distinguishes national readiness conditions from realized international cooperation and supports descriptive interpretation.