Intellectual capital and economic growth: evidence from some selected countries

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this study is to explain the output growth across countries as an effect of intellectual capital growth. Defining intellectual capital as an integral of all the various intangibles, it argued to resolve the conceptual complexities and empirical inconsistencies. For this, the study defined the flow of new ideas as a function of change in intellectual capital level. Thus, it developed a model in which broad ideas predetermine the quality of capital and labor necessary for final goods production. The model was estimated using dynamic common correlated effect estimators for a panel of 29 countries from all income levels and geographic regions from 1990 to 2020. The results show a positive and significant contribution of national intellectual capital to economic growth. Hence, policymakers must enhance innovation in all spaces and phases of learning.

Keywords

• Intellectual capital
• economic growth
• innovation
• ideas
• Aye Goodness, University of Agriculture, Makurdi Benue State, Nigeria
• Economics