INNOVATION INVESTMENT AND HIGH-TECHNOLOGY EXPORTS: EVIDENCE FROM ASIAN ECONOMIES

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of innovation investment, proxied by research and development expenditure, on high-technology exports in Asian economies. Drawing on a panel dataset of nine Asian countries over the period 2010–2024 and employing quantile regression techniques, the analysis captures the heterogeneous impacts of innovation investment across different levels of high-technology export performance, thereby moving beyond the average-effect focus prevalent in the existing literature. The empirical results demonstrate that innovation investment exerts a robust and statistically significant positive effect on high-technology exports across all estimated quantiles. In addition, trade openness, labor, and foreign direct investment are found to play critical roles in facilitating the expansion of high-technology exports. From an academic standpoint, this study advances the innovation–trade nexus by providing novel evidence from Asian economies using a long-horizon panel dataset and a distribution-sensitive empirical approach. From a policy and managerial perspective, the findings underscore the importance of strengthening research and development investment. They also highlight the need to deepen trade liberalization, attract high-quality foreign direct investment, and enhance human capital. These factors serve as key strategic levers for upgrading export structures and improving the global competitiveness of Asian economies within global value chains.