Regional Convergence and the Economic Performance of Peripheral Areas in Turkey

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to examine regional convergence and core‐periphery relations in Turkey. The main question explores the degree to which there has been a transformation of interregional disparities in terms of “convergence” and performance of peripheral regions in Turkey by considering GDP per capita over the 1980‐97 period. As a result of σ and β convergence (absolute and conditional) analyses, following Barro and Sala‐i‐Martin (1995), there is no evidence for convergence across both provinces and the functional regions in Turkey from 1980 to 1997. Moreover, a high level of the spatial dependence was revealed. Therefore, the level of regional GDP per capita growth was highly related to the neighbors and disparities are still obvious between the east and west of Turkey. Most of the new dynamic areas are also located in the west. Notwithstanding policies for “Priority Provinces in Development” (PPD), the findings of the convergence analysis indicates that PPDs do not grow faster than core‐developed provinces. Moreover, the majority of them remained as poor regions with their neighbors. While the PPDs share similar features compare to the developed provinces, they are differentiated in terms of their performance.

Spatial Analysis of Regional Inequalities in Turkey

“…The analysis of Gezici and Hewings (2001) revealed that the dispersion of GDP per capita across the provinces and functional regions have similar trends with little evidence of convergence. The growth rate and initial levels are essentially uncorrelated across the provinces and functional regions resulting in the rejection of β convergence for the 1980-97 period (see Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 1995 for a review of the various types of convergence).…”

“…These policy conflicts have neutralized many attempts to reduce regional disparities and have sustained core-periphery disparities. The result of the spatial correlation analysis provides evidence that the disparities between east and west regions remain (see Gezici and Hewings, 2001). In this paper, the level of the spatial analysis of regional inequalities in Turkey is developed not only at the inter-provincial level but for three different regional definitions as well.…”

“…In this paper, the level of the spatial analysis of regional inequalities in Turkey is developed not only at the inter-provincial level but for three different regional definitions as well. This need, to explore alternative geographies was generated by the findings of Gezici and Hewings (2001), wherein there appeared to be a need to examine not only inequalities between regions (inter-regional) but inequality within each region (intra-regional) as well. Hence, the paper affords a limited opportunity to test the effects of aggregation and scale on the identification of regional inequalities.…”

“…However, the inequality literature has generally neglected the spatial dimension (Rey, 2001). In Turkey, the persistence of a spatial dualism between east and west from the past until present was revealed in Gezici and Hewings (2001), while the European Union has north and south spatial regimes (Le Gallo and Ertur, 2001;Baumont and et al, 2001), Italy still has historical north and south dualism (Mauro and Podrecca, 1994), furthermore Greece has two main regions as Athens and non-Athens (Siriopoulos and Asteriou, 1998). This geographical disparity within several countries is further evidence that space continues to matter, even though the sources of disparities might be different from country to country.…”

The Impact of Public Capital on the Efficiency of Private Manufacturing Industry at the Regional Level

“…In recent years, there have been a number of studies on regional convergence regarding Turkey (see, for example, Filiztekin, 1998, Yildirim, 2005, Gezici and Hewings, 2004. Although there are several studies analysing regional convergence in Turkey, there appears limited number of studies that investigates the impact of the public capital on the private sector performance and regional convergence (see Önder et.al.…”