The 2012 GII - global innovation index ranking, published by INSEAD and WIPO, does not bring many changes to the top of the list as compared with the previous year. Four small countries occupy the topmost ranks : Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, Finland, in this order. The two heavyweights that manage to sneak among the top 10 are the United Kingdom, number 5, and the United States, number 10. In short, the 2012 ranking offers more of the same : a shining performance by a bunch of smaller, developed economies, leaving behind the super-champion United States.

The chart is structured by income group affiliation, showing by a red line the median GII for each of the four income groups : from LI (low income) to HI (high income) on the x-axis, left to right. One can see at a glance that, according to the INSEAD/WIPO method, innovation is more likely to be higher in wealthy economies (HI group) than in poor ones (LI group).The median value for each group goes up by increasingly large discrete steps : 25.4 - 28.3 -35.3 - 52.5, as the sets transition from one given income group to the next higher income group

With respect to the worldwide top standings, the ranking comforts the idea that small and dynamic economies are more adept to innovation than the heavyweights or the resource rich countries. From this viewpoint, the innovation index seems to align with other data pertaining to science and technology prestigious awards and to world-class universities and corroborates the thesis that small developed economies such as Switzerland, Finland or Singapore can outrun the biggies in terms of innovation and efficiency.

There are a couple of inferences to draw from this broad level analysis. First, innovation, along with other social factors, is ruled not by distributive justice, but by positive feedback — the higher the development level, the more likely to be highly innovative. Poorer countries will have a hard time to catch up with the already wealthier ones, and, other things remaining the same, the gaps are more likely to widen than the contrary.

Second, the so sought after "economies of scale", allegedly capable of providing large economies with intrinsic efficiency and cost advantages, are nothing but a mirage, distracting from the true drivers of prosperity and quality of life. Being big and heavy may be useful if you have to enter in a fist fight — although the performance of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan cast serious doubts on this hypothesis — but that does not make you any smarter. As the GII suggests, small Switzerland achieves a much better performance for its people, its economy and its innovativeness than its EU neighbors, the same that wrongly hoped that their growth in size would gratify them with the world's most powerful economy, and instead find themselves at the brim of the cliff.

Sources: INSEAD - WIPO.

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