The countries doing the most to advance global innovation

Robust innovation is essential for economic growth and social progress around the world. Innovation is a global public good, as innovations in one nation spill over beyond the country’s borders to benefit all the world’s citizens. Yet innovation suffers from a collective action problem, as countries traditionally pursue innovation initiatives from their own narrow economic goals, or, worse, disadvantage innovators in other nations in an attempt to favor their own enterprises. Thus, how nations decide, individually and collectively, to pursue innovation-based growth strategies holds critical implications for the global innovation system. Yet until now, most studies of innovation policy looked only at how nations’ policies affect innovation in their own country. In contrast, ITIF’s report assesses 56 countries – which comprise almost 90 percent of the global economy – on 27 factors reflecting the extent to which their economic and trade policies contribute to and detract from innovation globally. During the webinar both experts will elaborate on which nations are doing the most to bolster global innovation (a combination of more effort on policies that support innovation and less on policies that harm it) and discuss the correlation between countries’ contributions to global innovation and their levels of innovation success.