The Effectiveness of Institutions as a Mechanism to Enhance the Impact of Research Output on Economic Growth: An Analytical Study of the Middle East and North Africa Countries

The relationship between scientific research output and economic growth was the focus of a scientific study at the Faculty of Business Administration and Finance – International Private University for Science and Technology, titled: “Scientific Research and Economic Growth: What is the Role of Institutional Development?”. The study focused on the mediating role of institutional quality in shaping this relationship.

Relying on dynamic Panel data for 15 countries from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the period 2000–2017, the study used the two-step System Generalized Method of Moments (SYS-GMM) methodology, in addition to GMM-based quantile regression, aiming to analyze the variance in the effects of research across different levels of economic performance.

The study’s results indicate a positive and statistically significant interaction between research output and institutional quality, particularly concerning Government Effectiveness and the Rule of Law. The quantile regression estimates also reveal that this interactive effect is more pronounced in countries with more flexible economic structures.

The results clarify that the positive impact of high-quality research output on economic growth is conditional on the level of institutional quality. This means that effective institutions significantly enhance the developmental impacts of scientific research.

Consequently, the scientific study concludes that policymakers in the region’s countries must work on improving the quality of both research activity and institutional frameworks in parallel, with particular attention to enhancing Government Effectiveness and the Rule of Law. This will enable harnessing the full potential of scientific research in supporting sustainable economic growth.

It is noteworthy that the study was published in *Scientometrics*, a leading journal indexed in Scopus, classified within the top 10% of journals in its field (D1) with a Citescore impact factor of 7.6. The journal is considered in the top 5% with a cumulative percentage of 95%, ranking 13th out of 285 journals listed in the Social Sciences discipline, and is the leading global journal in the specialty of knowledge indicators. The journal is published by Springer Nature.