Effects of R&D expenditure on economic growth: An application on selected countries

Economic growth is the primary priority of today's developed and developing countries, both politically and socioculturally. Today, technology is at the forefront as the key to economic growth in order to increase the development level of countries and to reveal a positive development process by raising human welfare. In this context, countries are required to maintain their level of competition and keep technology at a renewable level within the framework of constantly emerging new needs. It is seen that the realization process of renewable technology is the result of R&D expenditures. In our study, we wanted to observe the change process in the economic growth levels of countries as the amount of investment made in R&D expenditures increased. In the study, a total of 18 countries, 11 developed countries and 9 developing countries, have been divided into two groups. The gross domestic product of the analyzed groups in 1996-2014, the ratio of R&D expenditures on GDP, external openness index, high technology exports and direct investment data were taken and analyzed with panel data analysis technical methods. As a result of the analysis, it was seen that R&D expenditures in both country groups had a positive effect on economic growth and a result was obtained in accordance with other studies in this field. As a result of the findings we have reached in our study, it is clear that R&D expenditures are important for both country groups, while R&D investments of developing countries provide higher returns to their economic growth. In this context, the efforts of countries today to maintain competition and increase living standards show the political and sociocultural political processes they have given to R&D investments.