Education and innovation: What should the focus of education be?

We examine the relationship between education and the ability to innovat e in OECD countries. More specifically, the question is: what does innovation most need in order to develop ? An i ncreas e in the skills of the population as a whole? An increase in overall education system performance? An increase in children’s maths and science skills? a larger share of the population to obtain a higher education degree? An increase in funding for higher education? The variable that best explains innovation (measured by triadic patents) is the skills of the population as a whole and children’s maths and science knowledge. Italy and France score particularly poorly in both.