Government Education Expenditure and High-Tech Exports: Empirical Evidence from Asia-Pacific Region

Abstract

This study advances the research agenda on the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by examining whether higher education moderates the relationship between government expenditure on education and high-tech exports. We employ the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach to analyze panel data from 36 countries in the Asia-Pacific region over the period 2009–2021. The GMM method helps address common issues in panel data estimation such as autocorrelation, heteroskedasticity, and endogeneity. Empirical results reveal that a higher proportion of male participation in higher education positively contributes to high-tech exports. However, the study also finds that increased government expenditure on education has a negative effect on high-tech exports. Furthermore, the findings indicate that higher education plays a moderating role in the relationship between government expenditure on education and high-tech exports. These results support the theoretical foundations of human capital, innovation, and inefficient resource allocation documented in prior literature. Finally, the study provides practical policy recommendations aimed at promoting sustainable growth in high-tech exports in Asia-Pacific countries through the development of human capital and the optimization of government education spending.