## 4 Investment Characteristics of Major Countries in Planning Research  
This study selected 47'major countries' globally, according to the proportion account for total planning research literature of the world at particular years since 1950, and the selected countries in this study are major powers in the sense of economy and politics.  
This research discovered the investment characteristics of planning research in major countries since 1950, which could be summarized as different '**investment characteristics**'. The **investment characteristics** could to some extent reflect the interaction between planning research and global political and economic pattern.  
According to the proportion changes of investment in planning research, the characteristics of investment in planning research of countries around the world can be concluded into the following categories (Figure 2):  
**Slowly rising countries**: these countries basically maintain a slowly rising proportion. The planning research investment of such countries showed relatively stable increasing. Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Romania, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Chile, Austria, Greece, Belgium, Singapore, Malaysia, Colombia, Mexico, Switzerland, South Africa, Iran (its previous proportion was tiny, but began to rise in 2006), the Netherlands (1986-1990s was at the bottom), and Australia.  
Figure 2: The proportion of major countries’ investment in planning research [30]. Source: based on data from Web of Science.  
**Rapidly rising countries**: Korea, Poland, Indonesia (started to grow faster in 2006), Russia (started to grow faster in 2006), Portugal (began to rise rapidly in 1996, before which the proportion was almost zero), Turkey (began to rise rapidly in 1996, before which the proportion was almost zero), Brazil, and Spain (began to rise rapidly in 1991), Italy (kept stable after 2000). These rapidly rising countries are emerging industrial countries, for instance the '**BRICS**', whose investment in planning research basically keeps pace with their economic performance.  
**Extremely rapid rising countries**: China (the proportion was almost zero before 1981, and it started to grow from 1981 to 2000 with a small increase. The proportion was only 2% until 2000, then suddenly began to rise sharply in 2000, and reached nearly 30% in 2010, surpassing the United States, which had occupied the first place for a long time, becoming the world's No.1 country in investment).  
**Countries that went up first and then down**: Nigeria, Israel, Argentina, Japan (which declined slowly after peaking in 2011), and France (which was in shrinking state during the 1976-1990s).  
**Balanced countries**: India, Germany, Sweden, the proportion of planning research investment in these countries has remained stable during the whole process.  
**Shrinking countries**: Canada (shrank since 1991 steadily), United Kingdom (1976-2005 was at peak, accounted for about 20% globally, down to less than 10% currently), United States (experienced shrinkage from the highest proportion of 80% in 1970s, to maintaining 50-80% between 1966 and 2000s; began to shrink sharply from 1996, currently account for 15% in investment).