The impact of patent application on economic growth in Africa

This study investigates the impact of the application of patents on economic growth for 9 selected African countries between the period 2000 and 2017. We use the least squares ordinal econometric framework to test linear relationships and varying effects on patents application and economic growth. The findings showed that conditioning on other growth determinants, the impact of patent applications on economic growth was positive among African countries. Although patent applications affect economic growth, it is weak in magnitude. The results showed that a 1% increase in patent application will increase GDP per capita by 0.43% for all countries sampled. Patent applications have a significant impact on economic growth among the African countries for the period 2000-2008 and 2009-2017. The results show that conditioning other growth determinants, 1% increase in patent application in years that vary less than 2009 will contribute to an increase of 0.395% in GDP growth, while the percentage increase in patents application in years that vary greater than 2008 will contribute to a high increase of 0.437% in GDP growth. In other words the impact of patents on GDP growth has continued to increase from 2000 -2017. The results also show that African countries can increase their economic growth from increasing patent applications.