Openness,economic freedom and democracy moderate the relationship between national intelligence and GDP

Recent studies have shown a consistent relationship between per-capita GDP and the average intelligence of the population. In the present paper we show that intelligence is indeed a powerful predictor of GDP. However, other variables significantly moderate the relationship. The rise in GDP with rising intelligence proved more pronounced in countries exhibiting high levels of openness, Freedom/Democracy, and economic freedom. These conditions appear to enable a country to translate its cognitive capital into material wealth.