James Okrah

Ural Federal University/GSEM, 

Ekaterinburg, Russia

jokrah6@gmail.com

Political stability and innovation in Africa

Marzena Hajduk-Stelmachowicz

Department of Economics, 

Rzeszow University of Technology

Poland

marzenah@prz.edu.pl

ORCID 0000-0003-4945-7207

Abstract. This paper examines the role of institutional factors, primarily, political stability, in shaping the dynamics of innovation activity in today’s modern society. Using panel data consisting of 26 African countries from the period between 1996 and 2016 as well as employing the negative binomial estimate, we model the impact of those factors on the number of applications for patents per resident. GDP per capita, education and also other institutional factors including the rule of law and financial freedom. The results reveal a strong positive effect of the rule of law on patenting activity.

Received: September, 2019

1st Revision: January, 2020

Accepted: February, 2020

DOI: 10.14254/2071-8330.2020/13-1/15

JEL Classification: O3, O55, F55, K10, M14

Keywords: innovations, patent activities, institutions and organisations, political stability, rule of law, entrepreneurship