Each year INSEAD teams up with Cornell University and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to produce the Global Innovation Index, which aims to rank the nations of the world according to their innovation capabilities.  One of the more noticeable aspects of the report is how little it changes from year to year, with Switzerland topping the rankings for many of the 13 years the rankings have been produced, and most of the top 10 also remaining pretty static.

COVID-19 has changed so much of the world, has it had a similarly transformative impact upon the world’s most innovative countries?  Despite necessity overwhelmingly being the mother of invention during the pandemic, the rankings didn’t really change from last year, with Switzerland, Sweden, and the United States filling the top three spaces, and only South Korea managing to break into the top 10.

The lack of movement perhaps reflects the very nature of innovation itself, with the index taking into account veritable facets of national character, such as their universities, infrastructure, and expenditure on R&D.  These are things that take time to build up and are not usurped quickly.

The researchers accept that in that sense, it’s largely too early to notice the impact of the pandemic, with the relevant data beginning to come through during the second half of 2020, but they highlight that both openness and education, which are the twin pillars of innovation, have been heavily affected by the pandemic.

Developing economies

The authors suggest that developing economies may be most significantly affected by the pandemic, however.  They highlight that many of the countries identified as outperforming on innovation relative to their economies in general were in developing nations, with eight of the 25 outperforming nations from Sub-Saharan Africa alone.  Such nations are likely to be heavily affected by the pandemic, which may strangle some of the growth in their innovation performances as money is diverted away from R&D and education and towards health and employment.

The data also highlights how the gap between rich and poor countries continues to widen, with the researchers urging the issue to be addressed when it comes to support offered to countries after the pandemic.  These difficulties are compounded by persistent inequalities and global protectionism that might be exacerbated after the pandemic if countries pursue nativist trade policies.

In terms of developed countries, the authors urge them to continue investing in education, and to remain open with regards to things like migration, trade, and global cooperation.  They argue that pandemic support packages to date have generally trodden the fine line between protecting jobs in the short-term, and making much needed changes in the long-term.  As such, they’re reasonably confident that innovation won’t become collateral damage of the pandemic.

It will probably only be in next year’s edition that the true picture begins to emerge, however, and so that will perhaps be slightly more interesting and enlightening than this year’s index.