Policy Implications on Transport Infrastructure–Trade Dynamics: Case of Turkey

Abstract

Transportation has a mediating position in international trade formation and in the past few decades, Turkey has invested substantially in transport infrastructure to increase connectivity and integration in global transport networks. Still, limited research has been conducted to understand channels and scope of the transport infrastructure development impacts on foreign trade. The objective of this study is to evaluate short-run and long-run causal linkages between transport infrastructure, exports and imports in Turkey for the period between 1987–2019. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is developed considering road and rail transport infrastructure components as well as information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure as a complement to quality transport networks. Results suggest that a speedy road network serves as a locomotive in trade development whereas rail infrastructure can be beneficial if a holistic connectivity plan is developed in a long-term perspective to improve multimodal transportation under a comprehensive, sustained transport policy. Besides, benefits of transport infrastructure investment can be realized in favor of export promotion rather than import growth if a comprehensive policy is followed. In that way transport infrastructure investment would become a stronger instrument to accomplish export competitiveness.

A Correlative Study of Modern Logistics Industry in Developing Economy and Carbon Emission Using ARDL: A Case of Pakistan

“…Accordingly, the primary motivation remains financial support to transport as the key to economic development, and simultaneously, it is triggering environmental mortification. These study insights are crucial for various stakeholders of the logistics industry [26,27]. Second, the other empiricists investigated these relations, given carbon emission as a positive indicator to boost economic growth and its positive relationship with infrastructure [7,28].…”

Transport Infrastructure and Regional Development: A Survey of Literature on Wider Economic and Spatial Impacts

“…The same effects can be achieved through the use of a more flexible pricing system, which is why it is advocated that the public capital series should be adjusted by an appropriate index reflecting the use of public services by the different sectors of the economy [123]. An interesting study of the impact of the development of transport infrastructure on foreign trade, taking into account information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure as auxiliary to transport networks, has been completed in Turkey [20]. Using an autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL), the study assesses the short-and long-term relationships between transport infrastructure, exports and imports in 1987-2019.…”

“…In later years, major transport infrastructure construction initiatives (motorway networks, high-speed railways, seaports and airports) were mainly observed in Asia, as well as in Central and Eastern Europe and on other continents, especially in developing countries. This gave rise to a number of publications in countries previously considered as developing ones, i.e., in Asia [7][8][9][10][11][12][13], India [14][15][16], Pakistan [17], Taiwan [18]; Armenia, Georgia and Turkey [19,20], Russia [21] or in the Middle East [22], as well as in Eastern Europe (in Poland [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and Croatia [32]) and Southern Europe (in Greece [33,34], Spain [35], Portugal [36] and in Italy [37]). The increased interest in this research topic in the countries mentioned above was often linked to the parallel rapid socio-economic development of areas where transport infrastructure was being expanded.…”

Dynamic Intercorrelations between Transport/Traffic Infrastructures and Territorial Systems: From Economic Growth to Sustainable Development

“…Empirical analyses at the international and national levels using cross-sectional and panel data sets were performed to identify the correlations between transportation improvement and economic growth [17,31,45,50,51,[60][61][62][63][64]. The main classes of empirical approaches are aggregate production function (Cobb Douglas, Translog), cost function, vector autoregression analysis and endogenous growth models [17,50,65].…”