Determinants of National Export Competitiveness in the Infor-mation and Communication Technology Industry

This thesis uses an augmented Gravity Model of international trade in order to identify the effect of four main variables on export competitiveness in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Industry. These variables are Research and Development (R&D) Intensity, R&D Spillover, Human Capital and ICT Infrastructure. Exports of manufactures and services are examined for OECD countries from 2009-2017. For service trade, investments into R&D are the most significant positive determinant out of the investigated key variables. Manufacture exports, on the other hand, are more sensitive to improvements in human capital and techno-logical infrastructure. This thesis contributes to the literature on national competitiveness in the trade of high-technology goods by analyzing the effects of changes in the endowments of the exporting and importing nation.