Intellectual capital and economic growth: evidence from some selected countries

Figures & data

Table 1. Variable definitions and data sources.

Variable	Definition	Data Source
Y	Output-side real GDP of the chained PPPs (in mil. 2017US$) PWT 10.0*
K	Capital stock at current PPPs (mil. 2017US$)	PWT 10.0
L	Number of persons engaged (in millions)	PWT 10.0
(1-α)	Share of labor varying across units and time	PWT 10.0
ic	National intellectual capital level	constructed
ic_g	National intellectual capital growth (independent var.)	≫
lic_g	Interaction of Labor and IC growth (independent var.)	≫
y_g	Output growth	≫

*Feenstra et al. (2015) for PWT data base usage.

Table 2. The CD and slope homogeneity test.

Variable	CD	CDw+	α	Delta
y_g	33.29**	676**	0.87	9.2** adj.15.3**
k_g	38.85**	828**	0.97
l_g	19.40**	464**	0.60
lic_g	14.63**	476.07**	0.80

** refers to 1% level of sig. 0.5 < = α < 1 → strong cross-sectional dependence.

CD: Pesaran (2015, 2021), and CDw+: CDw with power enhancement from Fan et al. (2015).

Table 3. Stationarity test.

Variables	CIPS or Pesaran (2007)			Karavias and Tzavalis (2014)
	Lags	no trend	trend	break	no trend	trend
y_g	1	−7.1**	−5.1**	1	−41.3**	−24.2**
	2	−4.4**	−2.1*	2	−40.9**	−22.8**
k_g	1	−5.2**	−4.1**	1	−38.0**	−21.8**
	2	−1.7*	−0.3	2	−37.7**	−21.2**
l_g	1	−6.9**	−6.1**	1	−48.3**	−39.3**
	2	−3.7**	−2.4**	2	−63.7**	−46.0**
lic_g	1	−10.1**	−7.3**	1	−44.2**	−24.9**
	2	−6.8**	−3.9**	2	−42.5**	−23.0**

* & ** refers 1% 5% level of sig.

Table 4. Mean growth of IC and output.

Income Category	Obs	lic_g	ic	y_g	ic-g
Low Income Countries (LIC)	62	0.0529	0.68	0.0500	0.024
Lower Middle Income Countries (LMIC)	186	0.0363	0.93	0.0431	0.008
Upper Middle Income Countries (UMIC)	248	0.0355	1.28	0.0395	0.018
High Income Countries (HIC)	403	0.0259	1.87	0.0306	0.016
Total Sample	899	0.0325	1.43	0.0370	0.015
AEC (Singapor, Thailand & S. Korea)	93	0.0381	1.80	0.0538	0.021

Figure 1. The level of IC index across income level and time.

Figure 2. The growth rate of IC across income level and time.

Table 5. Estimation result for output growth (y_g) as dependent variable.

MG effect	Variable	DCC-MG	CS-ARDL	CS-ARDL	HIC	Africa	Asia
Short Run Estimation	L.y_g (Std. Er.)	−.077 (.0573)	- .077 (.0573)	−.0434 (.0499)	−.066 (.0684)	−.252 (.1652)	−.020 (.1576)
	k_g (Std. Er.)	.177** (.0622)	.178** (.0622)	.181** (.0629)	.596** (.1932)	.449** (.0774)	.485** (.1704)
	lic_g (Std. Er.)	.140** (.0403)	.140** (.0403)	.108* (.0434)	.144* (.0707)	.248* (.1053)	.331* (.1387)
	L.lic_g (Std.Er.)	.149* (.0698)	.149* (.0698)
Adjust. Term	lr_y_g (Std. Er.)		−1.0** (.0573)	−1.0** (.0499)	−1.0** (.0684)	−1.2** (.1652)	−1.0** (.1576)
Long Run Estimation	lr_k_g (Std. Er.)		.171** (.0626)	.171** (.0599)	.624* (.2575)	.385** (.0777)	.458** (.1171)
	lr_lic_g (Std. Er.)		.240** (.0776)	.105** (.0397)	.124* (.0578)	.219** (.0703)	.350** (.1280)
CD	Statistic	−.36	−.36	.21	.61	−2.06	−1.13
Obs.		783	783	812	364	224	196

**& * refers to a 1% and 5% level of significance.

Table 6. CS-ARDL result of output per worker growth (yl_g) as dependent variable.

MG effect	Variable	Full Sample	OECD	SSA	Asia
Short Run Estimation	L.yl_g (Std. Er.)	−.206** (.0492)	−.078 (.0761)	−.234* (.1189)	−.014 (.1185)
	kl_g (Std. Er.)	.340** (.0709)	.272** (.0991)	.612** (.0389)	.468** (.1175)
	ic_g (Std. Er.)	.0704 (.0604)	.114 (.0696)	.333* (.1413)	.252 (.1337)
	L.ic_g (Std. Er.)	.130** (.0474)	.076 (.0467)
Adjust. Term	lr_yl_g (Std. Er.)	−1.2** (.0492)	−1.0** (.0761)	−1.2** (.118)	−1.0** (.1185)
Long Run Estimation	lr_kl_g(Std. Er.)	.303** (.0639)	.254** (.0812)	.279** (.1023)	.480** (.1038)
	lr_ic_g (Std. Er.)	.156* (.0743)	.165* (.0727)	.552** (.0889)	.267** (.1320)
CD	Statistic	.83	−.92	−2.33*	−1.51
Obs.		812	364	224	196

**& * refers to a 1% and 5% level of significance.

Table A1. Sample countries by income group and region.

Income group	SSA	MENA	LA	Asia	Europe	NA
LIC (< =$1,085)	Ethiopia 3 Malawi 6
LMIC ($1,086-$4,255)	Ghana 13 Kenya 5 Senegal 15	Morocco10		Indonesia 4 Philippines26
UMIC ($4,256–13,205)	Mauritius 9 S. Africa 12		Brazil 1 Mexico 7 Colombia2 Peru 11	Malaysia 8 Thailand 14
HIC (> =$13,205)			Chile 28	Japan 25 S. Korea 27 Singapore 29	Germany19 France18 UK 23 Netherlands20 Sweden22 Denmark16 Italy17 Spain21	USA 24

*Based on WB (2023) classification.

Table A2. Compositions of intellectual capital index.

Code		Indicators and or proxies	relation	Measures
Renewal capital(RC)	1	Payments + receipts for the use of intellectual property + technical cooperation grants	Positve	BoP, current US$
	2	Design applications (resident + non resident)	Positve	count
	3	Patent applications (resident + non resident)	Positve	count
	4	Research and development expenditure	Positve	% of GDP
	5	Scientific and technical journal articles	Positve	counts
Process Capital (PC)	1	Communications, computer, etc.	Positve	% serv export& import
	2	Cost of business start-up procedures	Negative	% of GNI per capita
	3	Internet + tele subscribers	Positve	per 100 people
	4	Procedures to build, register business & property	Negative	Number
	5	Time to register business & property	Negative	Days
	6	Corruption perception index	Negative	Number
Marketing Capital (MC)	1	Trade to GDP ratio	Positve	% of GDP
	2	Domestic credit to private sector	Positve	% of GDP
	3	Market capitalization	Positve	% of GDP
	4	Foreign direct investment, net inflows	Positve	% of GDP
	5	ICT goods & service exports	Positve	% service exports
	6	Medium and high-tech exports	Positve	% manufacturing exports
Human Capital (HC)	1	Population ages 15–64	Positve	% of total population
	2	Mortality rate, infant	Negative	per 1,000 live births
	3	Pupil-teacher ratio, 1°,2ry & tertiary	Negative	Number
	4	School enrollment, 1°,2ry & tertiary	Positve	% gross
	5	Researchers & Technicians in R&D	Positve	per million people

Source: Adapted from Ståhle et al. (2015) and global competitiveness index.

Table A3. Conjugated terminologies.

Learning Spaces	Learning Phases
	Input	Process	Output	Outcome
Technology	Technological Knowledge Existing Idea/knowledge/design	Technological innovation Advance of quality/variety	Technological Change Change of ideas	Technological Progress
Technic	Technical Knowledge: Practical/Experimental skills and arts/ rhetoric or basic education	Technical innovation Advance of methods, approaches	Technical Change Change of technic	Technical progress technical system progress
Scientific	Empirical/Theoretical Knowledge lab/skills or observations or theories	Scientific innovation Advance of hypotheses, observation,	Change of principles, theories, model, rules	Scientific progress Empirical & theoretical progress
Non-scientific	Philosophical Reasoning, a priori	Social innovation Advance of organizational & social thinking, leadership, networks, culture/ institutions.	Change of value	Behavioral, Social, organizational and institutional progress
Intellectual	Intellectual capital =  knowledge = A	Intellectual Innovation	Change of IC =  New idea = $\dot{A}$	IC Progress / Growth =$\dot{A}/A$

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Data availability statement

The data supporting the findings of this study are openly available in figshare at 10.6084/m9.figshare.22692550 or https://figshare.com/s/645ce6d7d0a15981ad67.