Page 74 - IJPS-9-2

International Journal of
Population Studies Relationship between population aging and innovativeness

JPN
PRT
FIN
GRC
DEU
BGR
FRA
SWE
DNK
ESP
NLD
AUT
BEL
CHE
ROU
GBR
POL
CAN
HKG
NOR
USA
NZL
ISL
KOR
THA
ISR
CHL
CHN
CRI
BRA
TUR
MEX
MYS
IND
ZAF
PHL
BGD
GTM
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Figure 3. Percent share of population over the age of 65 for selected countries in 2019
Note: Country ISOCODES: AUT: Austria; BGD: Bangladesh; BEL: Belgium; BGR: Bulgaria; BRA: Brazil; CAN: Canada; CHL: Chile; CHN: China; HKG:
Hong Kong; CRI: Costa Rica; DNK: Denmark; FIN: Finland; FRA: France; DEU: Germany; GRC: Greece; GTM: Guatemala; IND: India; ISL: Iceland; ISR:
Israel; JPN: Japan; KOR: Republic of Korea; MYS: Malaysia; MEX: Mexico; NLD: Netherlands; NZL: New Zealand; NOR: Norway; PHL: the Philippines;
POL: Poland; PRT: Portugal; ROU: Romania: ZAF: South Africa; ESP: Spain; SWE: Sweden; CHE: Switzerland; THA: Thailand; TUR: Turkey; GBR: United
Kingdom; USA: United States.

An interesting result pertaining to the variable It is worth noting that there is a relatively strong
UNI indicates that a one-point percentage increase correlation between the SRPR indicator and the indicator
in the number of graduated people leads to a nine- of business flexibility (r = 0.53). Given the relatively
unit rise in patent applications per 1,000 inhabitants. limited number of observations in our sample, the lack
This result holds statistical significance across all of significance of SRPR may be attributed to collinearity
model specifications and confirms the importance of issues. Indeed, this seems confirmed by the fact that
highly skilled human capital in driving innovation. when an alternative model specification (not reported
Regarding the institutional variables, only flexibility here) was employed, excluding the SRPR variable, the
in business regulation exhibits a positive and coefficient associated with BUS became statistically
significant correlation with the number of patent significant.
applications, at least in two out of three specifications.
This suggests that lowering the rigidity of market As shown in Figure 2, high-income countries are
regulations may incentivize more individuals to characterized by a higher number of patent applications.
become entrepreneurs, thereby fostering innovation The coefficient associated with the variable TRADE
or, as per Baumol’s perspective, channeling efforts suggests that for every additional 100 trademarks per 1,000
away from unproductive entrepreneurship. individuals, there is an expected increase of 12.6 patent

Volume 9 Issue 2 (2023) 68 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.0429