The impact of democratic transitions on innovation. An empirical panel analysis of 168 countries from 1960-2019.

Sammanfattning: This thesis empirically examines the impact of democratic transitions on innovation using a difference-in-differences method on a panel of 168 countries from 1960 to 2019. Patents, R&D expenditure, and scientific articles are employed as proxies for innovation. The results indicate that democratisations have a positive effect on patents. This association is significant for permanent democratisations and robust to various robustness checks. There is however no association reliably measurable for R&D expenditures and scientific articles on a global level. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the effect of transitions is more pronounced when a democratisation is sustained or permanent and that the impact on innovation varies among world regions. Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean broadly resemble the global pattern, whereas democratisations in MENA and East- and South-East Asia exhibit a different one. Lastly, it is found that the higher the achieved level of democracy after democratisation, the greater the countries’ patent counts and R&D expenditures. Supportive international efforts should be increased to ensure that democratic transitions are sustained and that a higher level of democracy is reached.