Effects of the European Monetary Union on High-Technology Exports

Abstract

Our study estimates the effects of the European Monetary Union (EMU) on high-technology (HT) export and assesses the potential knowledge spillovers of such trade. Irrespective of the importance of the HT trade channel, none of the previous studies in the literature focus on the effects of a common currency on HT trade. Increasing trade in the HT sector may lead to more efficient use of resources and help countries to move towards a knowledge-based economy. Moreover, it may lead to higher overall growth. After considering multilateral resistances, pair fixed effects and bias correction in the preferred (three-way bias-corrected) model, EMU membership becomes negative and statistically non-significant for HT exports. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the effect of the EMU on HT exports is country-specific, which lends support to the notion of non-homogenous knowledge transfer and country-related knowledge-based economic development within the EMU.