Drivers of national innovative systems in transition: an Eastern European cross-country analysis

Innovation plays a crucial role in determining today’s economic growth patterns. But what enables some countries to innovate more than others? This paper employs in premiere a panel of sixteen Eastern European countries throughout their transition period exploring empirically the drivers of their innovative capacity using as a proxy the number of patent granted in the USA. The econometric analysis confirms the importance of R&D commitments and innovative tradition in the form of existing knowledge stock. Increased trade openness and intellectual rights protection determine higher international patenting, while the transition specific factors, such as structural industrial distortions or aggregated output drops, have a significant negative influence. Governmental funding and research performance of universities encourage more innovation at the technological frontier, while the business R&D funding in Eastern Europe is negatively correlated with it