Effectiveness of expenditure on research and development in the Visegrád Group countries against the EU average

Abstract

The aim of this article is assess the effectiveness of expenditure of the Visegrád Group countries on research and development in comparison to the average for EU countries. It will be formulated with indicators showing the amount of exports of high-tech products, the number of patent applications and the number of citations of scientific publications per volume of expenditure. The Eurostat and Scimago Journal & Country Rank databases were used to structure the indicators, and the time scope of the analysis covers the years 2000–2016 and depends on the availability of data. Research and development are important for developing countries due to the technological gap that separates them from highly developed countries and the threat of the middle-income trap. The countries of the Visegrád Group joining the European Union have adopted common rules for shaping economic policy. An important part of it is the innovation policy, which aim is developing the research sphere. Data showing R&D spending as a % of GDP show that V4 countries achieve a lower than the EU average and a 3% level of expenditure assumed in the Horizon 2020 programme. Based on the analysis of effectiveness indicators, it can be stated that in the case of high-tech exports and the number of citations of scientific publications, the Visegrád Group countries achieve higher than average EU effectiveness, while in the case of the number of patent applications they are characterized by lower effectiveness.