The impact of technology indicators on export; OECD case

Initiated with the distribution and effective use of scarce resources; foreign trade is an important economic activity in today's globalised world to ensure economic growth and international competitiveness of the countries. Export, namely the main item of foreign trade, is the most important aspect affecting national income. In the literature, export is associated with the national income of the country and changes in foreign exchange rates. But the contribution of technology to the export, over the last fifty years has become undeniable. Technology investments and production for sustainable economic growth are the elements which help development of the foreign trade and an increase in the export. In this study, the existence of a relationship between technology indicators and export performance of the OECD member countries was investigated. R&D activities, patent rights, high-tech product export were used as technology indicators and data of countries was analyzed by panel data analysis. In a similar vein to many studies conducted in this domain on both micro and macro levels; this study is based on the assumption that technology accumulation has a positive impact on export. Data of thirty-four OECD member countries showed that the technology indicators between 1981-2014 had an increase affect on the export. KEYWORDS: Export, Technology, R&D, Patents, Information and Communications