Measuring the impact of financial sustainability indicators and their reflection on research and development spending as an indicator of technological innovation in Iraq

Abstract

The research aims to measure the impact of financial sustainability indicators on spending in research and development (R&D) as one of the indicators of technological innovation in Iraq. The quantitative econometric approach was employed, with the application of the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to analyze the relationship between the research variables.
The data used for the analysis included financial sustainability indicators, based on an annual quantitative analytical methodology. The financial sustainability indicators used in the study include the ratio of public debt to GDP, the tax gap, the ratio of fiscal deficit or surplus to GDP, the ratio of oil revenues to total revenues, and the ratio of total revenues to total expenditures, in addition to data on R&D spending as an indicator of technological innovation.

The results revealed the existence of a long-term relationship between financial sustainability indicators and R&D spending, showing that improvements in financial sustainability contribute to increased spending on technological innovation. The findings also indicated that fiscal deficits and public debt have a negative impact on R&D spending, whereas higher oil revenues positively enhance such spending.

The study concludes that promoting financial sustainability in Iraq could serve as a catalyst for increasing investment in research and development, thereby supporting technological innovation and sustainable development. Furthermore, the research recommends the adoption of sustainable fiscal policies and the