R&D EXPENDITURE, INNOVATION PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE EU COUNTRIES

Innovation plays the key role in economic development and also in the growth of the wealth of countries. Innovation is the driving force of each economy, competitiveness of the economy and a main essential component of the knowledge economy, which is based on the production of higher added value and support of the research and development (R&D). Therefore, the European Union with an effort to compete with other world economies is creating the frameworks of innovation policy in order to implement, maintain and disseminate innovation and innovative potential in all areas of socio-economic life. However, the innovation performance and potential differ significantly among the EU countries, and so the wealth of the countries. The main objective of the research made was to identify and quantify the possible impact of R&D expenditure on innovation performance and possible impact of the innovation performance on economic development of the EU countries. To achieve this goal a set of statistical methods was used, main of which is regression and correlation. In the result of our research, we have shown a significant interdependence between R&D expenditure, innovation performance and level of economic development of the EU countries.