Descriptive analysis of the countries with GDP investment in research and development above 1% during 2017 and 2018

Abstract

Public investment in research and development and the generation of patents are two of the main indicators recognized and widely used in studies on innovation, technological development and economic progress of countries. For the years 2017 and 2018, the World Bank reports 36 countries (16.6%) worldwide that devote 1% or more of their GDP to this sector. A descriptive analysis of these countries in terms of innovation, social progress and scientific production is carried out. Descriptive statistics and clustering are applied, as a result, this group of countries is characterized, for the most part, by occupying the first forty (40) places in the rankings of scientific production of countries (SJCR) published by Scimago, the Global Innovation Index and the Social Progress Index. On the other hand, investment of 1% or more in research and development is moderately related to the innovation index, and this, likewise with the positioning in the social progress ranking.