Replication data for: National Innovative Capacity as Internet Penetration: Worldwide Evidence for Innovation Development through ICTs

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and innovation have profoundly reshaped and promoted global development. Although there are many works that have examined the direct effects of ICTs on national development in the fields of economics, society and politics, the important role played by ICTs in national innovation capacity has been less widely explored from an empirical standpoint. This paper investigates the effect of Internet penetration on national innovation development, based on cross-national panel data from 156 countries between 1995 and 2014. We find that Internet penetration has a significant but decreasing promotional effect on innovation, and this is robust to various models and variable measures. A one-year lagged effect between Internet penetration and innovation is also observed. The results show significant interactive effects between levels of democracy (regime types), Internet penetration and innovation. The paper concludes with an overview of the potential policy implications of these findings.