Educational achievements and export earnings: a comparison between leader and follower countries

• Main Authors: Alam, Gazi Mahabubul, Forhad, Md. Abdur Rahman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald 2023
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/107444/1/Educational%20achievements%20and%20export%20earnings_a%20comparison%20between%20leader%20and%20follower%20countries.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/107444/; https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJCED-12-2022-0084/full/html
• Institution: Universiti Putra Malaysia

Purpose This study examines whether education in developing countries directly impacts their foreign income from the top export sector. Design/methodology/approach As most developing countries follow developed nations to shape their development, this study assumes developing countries as education-follower and developed countries as education-leader countries. Considering selected countries from the South Asian Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and African countries as follower countries and Group of Seven (G7) as leader countries, this study employs Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger non-causality tests. Findings This study finds that education-follower countries' achievements do not directly impact foreign earnings from their leading export sectors. However, findings also confirm that leader countries have a bidirectional causal relationship between tertiary education and earnings from high technology exports. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study urging research-intensive education with comparative advantages in international trade. Using educational attainment on export earnings from the leading sector, findings support dependency theory in education is still existed.