In this paper, trade relationship between Iran and its main trading partners based on Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek (H-O-V) theory is studied in order to evaluate the development of trade relationship in export factor intensity framework. Considering several production factors such as labor, physical capital, knowledge capital, R&D expenditures, productivity and energy as countries export factor content from 1990 to 2020 is the innovation of the study.
Regarding the role of R&D expenditures in trade expansion, it seems there is an allocation gap of this resource between developed and developing countries in order to benefit from the identical distribution, while the empirical findings available in the trade literature implies also unpredictable impact of the R&D expenditure variable on trade flows. Therefore, the analysis of this variable effect on trade flows is not limited to a parametric relationship. Nevertheless, other factors such as labor and capital have distinct and parametric effects on trade relations, so that a semiparametric method has been applied to the model of Iran’s export supply in relation with its trading partners. The empirical results showed that productivity, human capital, and knowledge capital, which are the main trade factor content, have the most impacts on Iran export flows and its trading partners. Additionally, the nonparametric part of the model implies that a higher percentage of R&D expenditures affects significantly Iran’s export flows in a higher rate.
