Assessing the growth effects of the creative economy: new evidence from a dynamic GMM approach

This study examines the impact of the creative economy on economic growth through a comparative analysis of developed and developing countries. Using panel data from 121 countries over the period 2011–2024, the research investigates how the creative economy, represented by the creative export, affect GDP growth. The empirical analysis employs fixed-effects estimation and the two-step Difference Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to address potential endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity across countries. The results indicate that both the creative export has a positive and statistically significant impact on economic growth. In addition, macroeconomic factors such as innovation, gross capital formation and trade openness also contribute positively to growth, while inflation shows a negative effect. The comparative analysis reveals that the influence of the creative economy is stronger in developing countries, suggesting greater growth potential from creative exports in economies undergoing structural transformation. These findings highlight the increasing importance of creativity-driven development and provide policy implications for promoting innovation capacity and expanding the global competitiveness of creative industries.