The Impact of Learning on Technology Content of Iran’s Industrial Export

Over the past decades, technology has been considered as a major factor that affects economic and industrial development. The export technology content, which reflects the export goods characteristics, has also been of great importance at the international level. The export technology content influenced by knowledge which one of its sources is learning that according to economists, can be due to experience in production or export. The purpose of this paper is analyzing the learning-by-doing and investigating its impact on industrial export technology content at the level of two-digit ISIC codes in Iran’s Industries using the Arellano-Band dynamic data estimation method from 2011 to 2015. For this purpose, different indicators are used to quantify the learning and another indicator is applied to compute the export technology content. The results of this study show that learning-by-exporting influences both a country’s export composition and the export technology content more than learning-by-production. In addition, learning-by-doing has a positive and significant effect on the export technology content. Further, the variables of human capital, GDP per capita, trade openness, and Intra-industry trade index have a remarkable effect on the export technology content of two-digit ISIC codes industries.