BOSTON — With the New England economy in a slump, businesses might find an export bonanza through new markets in Europe, Canada and the Far East, a study says.

But the region must branch out from the high-tech industries that dominated its exports in the 1980s for its economy to prosper in the future, researchers concluded.

The U.S.-Canadian trade agreement, the unification of Europe, Japan’s shedding of some trade barriers and the crumbling of communism in the East could open markets to New England firms that were undreamed of just a few years ago, according to the study by the Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

However, there is work to do if the region is to tap into these lucrative new markets, according to the findings published in Connection, New England’s Journal of Higher Education and Economic Development.

Except for Canada, Western Hemisphere countries receive only a small share of New England exports, the study found. In Asia, only Japan is a major destination of the region’s exports.

And while the value of all U.S. exports jumped 27 percent from 1987 to 1988, New England exports grew in value by just 18 percent for the same period, the study noted.

Three high-tech industries account for 61 percent of the region’s manufactured exports in 1988, the year studied.

Industrial machinery, including computer equipment, accounted for 35 percent of exports; electronics made up 13 percent; and scientific instruments accounted for 13 percent, the study found.

Those industries also accounted for a large share of total U.S. exports in their respective industries. New England-made scientific instruments accounted for 13 percent of all U.S. exports of scientific instruments, for example.

But the region must expand its export base in the 1990s, researchers said.

New England’s high-tech industries, already challenged at home, now are threatened overseas, researchers found. Foreign competition has grown dramatically, and subsidiaries of U.S. high-tech firms have expanded manufacturing operations overseas.

The region’s future strength as an exporter will come from diversity, the study concluded.