Technological structure of trade and BOP-constrained growth in Turkey

Abstract

This study investigates the empirical validity of the Multisectoral Thirwall's Law for Turkey over the last half century. Multisectoral Thirwall's Law facilitates the discussion of the effects of the sectoral composition of trade on the extent of the balance of payments (BOP) constraint and consequently on the long run growth prospects of an economy. In particular structural change favoring sectors with Schumpeterian and Keynesian efficiencies is expected to improve these prospects. Lall's commodity classification on a technology basis is adequate for delineating such sectors. In this study distinct export and import functions are estimated for primary production low technology manufacturing medium technology manufacturing and high technology manufacturing industries using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test and Johansen approaches to cointegration. Resulting income elasticities are used to discuss the structural change in the technological content of Turkish trade and the validity of the Multisectoral Thirwall's Law. Results suggest that Turkey has come a long way in terms of improvements in Schumpeterian and Keynesian efficiency over the last 50years and that the Multisectoral Thirwall's Law is empirically valid in the case of Turkey.