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

Abstract

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.

Citation

Alam, G.M. and Forhad, M.A.R. (2023), "Educational achievements and export earnings: a comparison between leader and follower countries", International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 69-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCED-12-2022-0084