The effect of research development expenditures on high technology exports: A panel data analysis on OECD countries

Today's developing and changing economic conditions require countries to be innovative and to follow technological developments closely in order to achieve sustainable growth, gain competitiveness and determine changes in consumer preferences. Research and development, which is shown as the reason of technological developments, is defined as the development of new products and production processes depending on information and technology. The technological products and innovations created as a result of R&D activities are not only offered to the domestic market, but are exported at the same time. Exports of high technology products, which countries and enterprises carry out, play an important role in increasing their economic growth due to the added value they contain. In this study, the effect of R&D expenditure on high technology exports for 31 OECD countries using 1996-2016 annual data was investigated by panel data analysis method. The tests required for panel data analysis showed that "Fixed Effect Model with Driscoll and Kraay Standard Errors " should be used. Empirical results show a positive and significant correlation between R&D expenditure and high technology export for OECD countries.