Socio-Economic Momentum: A New Indicator Derived Using Research Documents Per Capita (RDPC) for Five Most Populous Nations

Abstract

It appears intuitive that technological advances and economic growth are closely related. This is evident by the fact that technologically advanced nations also have a developed economy. Technological advances of a country are based on the research done in various areas by the respective nation. The quantum of research done by a country can be discerned by the Research papers published by the citizens of that nation. Research conducted by any country is also influenced by the education levels attained by that nation’s society. Thus economic growth, quantum of research conducted and educational levels of the citizenry appear to be closely interlinked. This paper attempts to measure the actual inter-relations between the educational levels, quantum of research conducted and economic growth of nations with statistical methods using data from large demographic functionalities for observations. Using these observations, an attempt will be made to define and measure “Socio-economic Momentum”. Socio-Economic Momentum as we will examine, might also be a reliable indicator of a nation's robustness of its welfare state model. In this endeavour, Research Documents Per Capita (RDPC) will be used as a metric to test the reliability of the underlying inter-relations.