A simple index of innovation with complexity

Abstract

Patents are the main source of data on innovation. Since most of the innovative activity happens outside of the patenting system, and since patents –and innovations- have different quality, complexity, and impact on each market, unweighted sums of patents and proxies are a bad indicator of a country’s innovative activity. I generate a very simple index of innovation that weights patents and exports by a complexity measure. Country rankings using this measure are consistent with market size, GDP per capita, and technological development of each country