Abstract

New knowledge creation affects development and economic growth by promoting innovation and improving human capital quality. We examine whether emerging economies close the gap in scientific productivity with developed countries across the G20 countries over the period 1996 to 2022. Under the National Innovation System (NIS) context, we introduce critical elements such as the scientific collaboration rate and institutional quality alongside the GDP and expenditure on R&D to reveal the factors that significantly affect the scientific productivity. We use a two-step system GMM estimation and expand the analysis across the 27 subject areas to identify the field-specific mechanisms that drive scientific productivity. The findings suggest that economic development, scientific collaboration and government effectiveness significantly affect new knowledge creation. However, variations are noted among different research areas, highlighting a hard-to-soft science continuum. The results can offer policymakers, researchers, and investors insights into factors that can serve as a basis for targeted policy interventions to promote the scientific productivity growth of low-productivity countries.