The study examines the impact of pharmaceutical R&D expenditures on pharmaceutical foreign trade by utilizing macro and microdata. The macro data is sourced from open-access databases provided by OECD and TURKSTAT, while the microdata analysis was conducted at the TURKSTAT data research center. The macro-level data analysis involves a cointegration test followed by estimating long-term coefficients. The results indicate that pharmaceutical R&D expenditures positively affect pharmaceutical exports in the long run, while they negatively affect pharmaceutical imports. In addition, pharmaceutical R&D expenditures positively affect total exports but not total imports. The micro-level data analysis involves POLS, fixed and random effect panel models. The findings reveal that pharmaceutical firm’s R&D expenditure is positively correlated with exports and negatively correlated with imports. The macro and micro data findings align with our expectations, reinforcing each other intensely.
Akpınar et al. (Mon,) studied this question.