National Intellectual Capital as an Indicator of the Wealth of Nations: The Case of the Baltic States

The aim of this study is to assess national intellectual capital of the Baltic States in the context of Europe and compare the results of assessment with other indicators of nations: GDP per capita, Human Development Index, rankings of the World Competitiveness Scoreboard. Results of empirical research carried out across 28 European countries in 2007-2011 are discussed in this paper. According to them, the overall national intellectual capital index of the three Baltic States among the European countries is relatively different: Estonia ranks 9th, Lithuania – 21st, and Latvia – 24th. The GDP per capita of all the Baltic States looks fairly similar. Contrary to it, the obvious Estonian gap according to the Human Development Index and the rankings of the World Competitiveness Scoreboard is observed. Consequently, trends of the national intellectual capital index, the Human Development Index and the rankings of the World Competitiveness Scoreboard can be considered as coincident.