The Role of Technology Diffusion on Industrial Export : Empirical Analysis of Iranian Economy

Recent theories of international economics deal with oriented innovation in reaction to economic incentives as a main engine of technological progress and competitiveness. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of real variables such as stock accumulation of domestic R&D activities and stock accumulation of foreign R&D activities (via the import of goods and inflow of FDI), and also the price variables such as real exchange rate and inflation rate on Iran's economy industrial export during the period 1970-2005. The estimated results show that the stock accumulation of domestic R&D activities and stock accumulation of foreign R&D activities (spillover from import channel of goods) have positive but insignificant effect on industrial export and the stock accumulation of foreign R&D activities (spillover from inflow of FDI) has positive and significant effect on industrial export. Also real exchange rate has a positive but insignificant effect on industrial export; while the coefficient of inflation rate indicated that the rate of inflation has negative and significant effect on industrial export in the Iranian economy