Relationship of Social Progress Index (SPI) with Gross Domestic Product (GDP PPP per capita): The moderating role of Corruption Perception Index (CPI)

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of social progress on economic development in 119 countries, while taking their individual corruption perception into consideration. Simple linear regression was use on the secondary data for 119 countries and 5 continents while the SPSS PROCESS macro was used to test the moderating effect of corruption perception. As hypothesized, a positive relationship of the social progress index (SPI) with gross domestic product (GDP) PPP per capita was observe. This means that countries, which fulfill basic human needs, foundations of wellbeing and foster availability of opportunities have enhanced economic development. Moreover, the moderating role of corruption perception between the relationship of social progress and economic development was confirmed; thus indicating that countries with better corruption perception rating possess a stronger relationship of SPI and GDP (PPP) per capita and vice versa. When checked for continents, moderation results showed that the continents that have higher values of corruption perception index (CPI) are more socially and economically developed.