Latvia and Slovakia entered after Poland, for instance. Won't check the rest. And, anyways, does OECD membership really account for something? Who is not a OEC

Latvia and Slovakia entered after Poland, for instance. Won't check the rest. And, anyways, does OECD membership really account for something? Who is not a OECD member nowdays? African countries? Well, I believe it isn't a surprise for you there aren't many known thousand-year-old businesses there (there hardly is a "thousand-year-old history" at all, same as South America), and this is not entirely related to a country doing well right now. I bet you don't consider Latvia currently doing better than Arab Emirates, for example. Basically, most of these old businesses are either in Europe or Japan. I'm only surprised that China, SK and Russia are not on the list, but you can find explanations for that. And whats left are, basically, "countries w/o history". So, no, I don't believe you could find a causal relationship here, unless you are basically making it up.