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While corruption generally negatively affects growth by reducing predictability in the economy, it can have a positive effect on investments and thus growth by making easier to overcome rigidities in the bureaucratic environment at the micro-firm level. In this context, stock markets, which are the barometer of the economy, may be negatively affected by corruption and it is thought that the positive performance on the basis of the company will improve the stock market. In the study, it has been studied the relationships between stock market and corruption, using interest rate and per capita income as control variables, in the framework of the structural vector auto regressive model for the period from 1995 to 2019, The findings show that corruption enhances the stock market in Turkey. It can be said that the despotic Leviathan structure plays a deepening role in this situation. From this respect, the stock market, in an environment in which it acts with a semi-strong market efficiency motive, has almost the meaning of uncertainty for an investor and so makes it risky for the average investor to go towards the stock market. In sum, it can be said that the presence of such an image that the stock market rallies by virtue of corruption becomes a problem for Turkey which needs capital accumulation over long periods of time.

Yakınsama hipotezinin gelir temelli bakış açısının, kalkınmanın hem nedeni hem de sonucu olarak enerji kullanımı açısından incelenmesi amacıyla yapılan bu çalışmada; enerji tüketimi yaşam standardının bir göstergesi olarak, sanayi enerji tüketimi ise üretim güçlerinin dağılımı amacıyla kullanılmıştır. 2007-2017 arası dönem için yapılan analizlerde hem toplam tüketim hem de sanayi tüketim değerleri açısından gerek mutlak gerekse koşullu yakınsama mekanizmasının Türkiye’de iller bazında işlediği tespit edilmiştir. Mekânsal değişkenler vasıtası ile de illerden komşularına doğru iyileşmelerin yayılma etkisi ortaya çıkardığı görülmüştür., In this study, which aims at researching the income-based perspective of convergence hypothesis in terms of energy use as both cause and result of development; energy consumption has been used as an indicator of living standards, while industrial energy consumption has been used for distribution of production forces. Analyses conducted for period between 2007-2017, it has been detected that both absolute and conditional convergence mechanisms in terms of both total consumption values and industrial consumption values operate on the basis of provinces in Turkey. It was found that the improvements from the provinces to their neighbours possess a spillover effect.

Socialism, in theory, claims to establish an egalitarian structure without any discrimination in terms of race, religion, sect, and gender. However, the Soviet experience, in practice, has shown that this ideal has never been realized. This inegalitarian structure in countries that gained their independence from the former Soviet Union is also evident in the complexity index. In other words, it has been observed that this inegalitarian structure of the transition economies in the East and in the West has different reflections on their respective complexity indices. The underlying reason is that, in the Soviet era, the Eastern economies were hindered to acquire productive abilities other than their natural advantages, due to being subjected to negative discrimination. This study aims at determining whether or not the linear relationship between the complexity index and growth, as described in the literature, is similar among the transition economies in the East and in the West. According to the results of panel regression analysis for 15 countries in the period of 1998-2018, the effects of the complexity index on growth in the Eastern countries are negative on the contrary to the literature, and in the Western countries they are positive as in the literature. Along the transitional process, it has been observed that some Eastern countries gradually became less-developed third-world countries due to deepening of economic poverty; while the Western countries showed stronger characteristics of a welfare society, hence, some of these countries became developed first-world countries.

Çalışmanın amacı, ekonomik kalkınma göstergesi olan insani gelişme endeksi ile yolsuzluk göstergesi olan yolsuzluk algı endeksinin demokrasi düzeyine etkisi gelişmişlik düzeyi farklılık arz eden ülkeler için 2010-2018 dönemine ait veriler ile panel sıralı nitel tercih yöntemini kullanarak araştırmaktır. Yaygın literatür daha çok demokrasi veya yolsuzluğun büyüme ve kalkınma etkilerini incelerken, teorik perspektifte özellikle kalkınmanın demokratikleşmeyi tetikleyeceğine dair savlar eşliğinde araştırma kurgulanmıştır. Bu çerçevede bağımlı değişkenin sıra sayılar alması nedeniyle azgelişmiş, gelişmekte olan ve gelişmiş ülkeler için sıralı nitel tercih modellerinden sıralı logit model analizi yapılmıştır. Araştırma sonucuna göre az gelişmiş ve gelişmiş ülkelerde hem insani gelişme endeksi hem de yolsuzluk algı endeksindeki iyileşmelerin demokratikleşmeyi beslediği tespit edilmiştir. Buna karşılık gelişmekte olan ülkelerde ise yalnızca yolsuzluk algı endeksinin demokrasinin yüksek düzeylerinde daha etkili ve yüksek demokrasi düzeyini etkileme olasılığının daha yüksek olduğu sonucu elde edilirken, kalkınmadaki iyileşmelerin demokratikleşmeyi olumlulaştırmadığı gözlenmiştir. Bu noktada gelişmişlik düzeyi açısından demokratikleşme ile ekonomik gelişme arasında “u eğrisi” şeklinde bir ilişkinin varlığı tespit edilmiştir.

The Turkish economy succeeded in moving from the lower-middle income group to the upper-middle income group in 2005. If Türkiye had been able to sustain its growth performance in 2005 and the following 5-10 years, it could have risen to the class of high-income countries in a not too long period of time. However, it has experienced declines in dollar-denominated income in response to real growth between 2014 and 2020. In this process, a literature began to emerge about Türkiye falling into the middle-income trap. At this point, Türkiye, which had the possibility of rising to the high-income country group in 2013 but declined to the median income in the upper-middle income group as of 2020, seems worth examining with its experiences. In this study, the descriptive analyzes implies that the risk that Türkiye will fall to the lower-middle income level in 2027, if the continuous decline trend in dollar-based income figures in the post-2013 period continues. It can be said that the de-dollarization effects in exchange rates, as a reflection of the improvement in institutional structures and the foreign capital inflows triggered by this, played an important role in the great leap observed in Türkiye’s dollar-based income before 2013. Given the continuous decline in dollar-based income after 2013, it is noted that the deterioration in institutional structures and the dollarization effects in exchange rates are significant.

The favor of domestic and foreign elements is an important factor in the rise of the stock market index, and in this context, it is expected that foreign capital coming to the country will play a role in increasing the stock market. Foreign capital investments, which come to the stock market in particular and to the country in general for investment purposes, lead to the concept of debt burden after a while and may cause that country to be considered risky. Problems in foreign debt and its solvency make the country risky, and when such a situation arises, it is possible that the country's stock market will be adversely affected. In other words, the hypothesis that foreign capital inflows affect the stock market positively up to a certain level and that it will affect the stock market negatively after a certain level is exceeded has been the subject of examination in the Turkish economy. For the period between 1998:1Q-2021:4Q, stock market and debt data were subjected to time series analysis. Since the series were stationary at the first difference, FMOLS regression analyzes were performed in order to clearly reveal the relationships between the variables considered. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the stock market index was positively affected by the increases in debt up to a certain level; However, when a certain debt threshold level is exceeded, it has been determined that debt negatively affects the stock market.

Özet: Çin ile ABD arasındaki dış ticaret ilişkileri değerlendirildiğinde, Çin’in genelde dünyaya ve özelde de ABD’ye karşı dış ticaret bilançosu açısından sürekli fazla verdiği dikkat çekmektedir. Dış ticareti de kuşatan cari işlemler bilançosu çerçevesinde bir değerlendirmesi yapıldığında, cari fazlanın dış ticaretteki kadar olmadığı görülmektedir. Dolayısıyla sürekli açık veren gelişmiş ekonomilerin tarife dışı araçlarla ve özellikle gönüllü ihracat kısıtlamaları olgusuyla tepki verdiği politika argümanının varlığı bilinmektedir. Burada ABD’nin dış açığını by-pass etme eğilimiyle kısıtlamalara yöneldiğinde dair savların yanı sıra Çin’in giderek yükselen trendine karşılık olarak onun önemli bir ekonomik güç olma motifini aşağıya çekme eğilimine paralel biçimde yeni merkantilist uygulamaların varlığı tartışma konusudur. Çalışmada ana mal grupları itibarıyla Çin ile ABD arasındaki rekabet güçleri inceleme konusu yapılmıştır. Rekabet gücü açısından Çin’in yükte ağır, pahada hafif mallar grubunda rekabet gücünün olmadığı dikkat çekmiştir. Bu durum oldukça geniş iç talepten kaynaklanabileceği düşünülmüştür. Ancak, bu grupta da ileriye dönük olarak rekabet gücü elde etme olasılığına dair sinyaller yakalanmıştır. Diğer taraftan genel anlamda emek-yoğun sektörlerde rekabet gücünün varlığı dikkat çekmekte ve bunun da makineler ve taşıt araçları ile çeşitli mamul eşyada olduğu gözlenmiştir. Bu iki mal grubundaki üstünlüğün daha çok ucuz emek avantajı ile sürdürüldüğü söylenebilir.Anahtar Kelimeler: ABD ve Çin ekonomisi, Balassa endeksi, Rekabet gücü.COMMERCIAL TENSION BETWEEN CHINA AND USA:A VIEW OF COMPETITIVENESSAbstract: When foreign trade relations between China and the USA are evaluated, it is noteworthy that China always gives a surplus in terms of foreign trade balance against the world and in particular to the USA. When an evaluation is made within the framework of the current account balance that encompasses foreign trade, it is seen that the current surplus is not as much as in foreign trade. Therefore, the existence of a policy argument is known that the developed economies that constantly open deficit react with non-tariff instruments and especially voluntary export restrictions. The issue of new mercantilist practices is the issue here, in line with the arguments regarding when the US tends to bypass the foreign deficit, as well as its tendency to downgrade its motif as an important economic power in response to China's increasing trend. In the study, the competitiveness between China and the USA in terms of main goods groups has been examined. In terms of competitiveness, it is noteworthy that China has no competitive power in the heavy, expensive light goods group. This situation is thought to be caused by quite wide domestic demand. However, in this group, signals about the possibility of obtaining competitive power prospectively were caught. On the other hand, the presence of competitiveness in the labor-intensive sectors in general attracts attention, and this has been observed to be in machines and vehicles and various manufactured goods. It can be said that the superiority in these two commodity groups is maintained with the advantage of cheap labor.Keywords: USA and Chinese economy, Balassa index, Competitiveness.

Taylor's rule that is developed for the determination of interest rate, is a mechanism which determines the level of domestic interest rates based on internal and external factors. In the Taylor rule, while inflation and income are internal factors, exchange rate is external factor. Considering the strong functioning of this mechanism in terms of interest, it can be thought that the stock market may follow a similar path. Therefore, in addition to the variables listed in the Taylor rule, interest rate, gold prices and foreign exchange values were included in the model. Thus, while inflation (EA), interest (FA) and income (YA) were taken as internal factors, exchange rate (DA), gold (AA) and foreign stock exchange value (SA) are modeled as foreign element. All variables in models created under the Taylor rule are defined in open terms by subjecting them to Hodrick-Prescot Filtering. For the period between 1998: Q1-2019: Q3, linear and nonlinear models were estimated by L-ARDL and NL-ARDL methods, respectively. In the obtained results, EA variable was significant in L-ARDL results, whereas it was not significant in NL-ARDL results. In addition, all variables in the model were statistically significant. Accordingly, YA, FA and AA variables have negative effects on the stock market; SA and DA variables have positive effects on the stock market. From the obtained findings, stock in the framework of Taylor rule logic mechanisms in Turkey’s economy is seen to be influenced by internal and external variables. The fact that stock exchange has been effected by production that is by the economic growth among other variables put forward that monetary and thus speculative actions rather than real economic facts were more dominant. Oh the other hand it has been seen that all the other variables reflected general tendencies. Jel Codes: B40, C51, G17.

Küreselleşmenin ve bilgi çağının yoğun etkilerini hissettiğimiz günümüzde rekabet gücü, ekonomik büyümenin sağlanmasında büyük öneme sahiptir. IMD sınıflamasına göre rekabet gücünün alt endekslerinden biri de kamu etkinliği endeksidir. Kamu etkinliği rekabet gücünün sağlanmasında etkili olan değişkenlerin incelendiği bu çalışmada Türkiye başta olmak üzere IMF sınıflamasına göre orta gelirli ülkeler grubunda yer alan ve veri setlerine tam olarak ulaşılan on iki ülke için 1997-2012 dönemi verileri ile dengeli panel veri analizi yapılmıştır. Kamusal etkinliği ölçmede sık kullanılan bütçe dengesi/GSYİH oranı, dış borç/GSYİH’ya oranı ile mülkiyet ve güvenlik hakları bağımsız değişkenler olarak kullanılmıştır. Bu kapsamda yapılan panel veri analizi sonuçlarına göre kısa dönemde bütçe dengesi/GSYİH ve mülkiyet-güvenlik hakları değişkenlerinin kamu etkinliği üzerinde anlamlı ve pozitif etkili oldukları görülmektedir. Bütçe dengesindeki ve mülkiyet-güvenlik haklarındaki iyileşmenin kamu etkinliği endeksini pozitif yönlü etkilemesi, beklenen bir sonuç olup, teori ve literatür çalışmaları ile uygundur. Çünkü bütçe dengesindeki iyileşme, ülkenin kamusal açıdan rekabet gücüne katkıda bulunurken, mülkiyet-güvenlik haklarındaki iyileşme ise gerek yerli, gerekse yabancılar için kamunun otoritesine olan güveni artırarak kamu etkinliği endeksini olumlu etkilemektedir., In today's world where we feel the intense effects of globalization and the information age, competitive power is of great importance in achieving economic growth. According to IMD classification, one of the sub-indices of competitiveness is the government efficiency index. Government events are balanced panel data analysis with the 1997-2012 period, the data are made fully accessible on the two countries to located and data sets in the middle-income group of countries according to the IMF classification, particularly to Turkey in this study that examined the effective variable in ensuring competitiveness. Budget balance / GDP ratio, external debt / GDP ratio, and property and security rights, which are frequently used in measuring government efficiency, were used as independent variables. According to the results of the panel data analysis conducted in this context, it is seen that the variables of budget balance / GDP and property-security rights have a significant and positive effect on government efficiency in the short term. It is an expected result that the improvement in the budget balance and property-security rights will affect the government efficiency index positively and it is in line with the theory and literature studies. Because while the improvement in the budget balance contributes to the competitiveness of the country in terms of government, the improvement in property-security rights increases the confidence in the government authority for both locals and foreigners and positively affects the government efficiency index.

The economic political uncertainty (EPU) index developed by Berg et al. (2013) and the global economic political uncertainty (GEPU) index developed by Davids et al. (2016) revealed the existence of their strong relations with macroeconomic indicators in the US economy in general. Parallel to this power exhibited by the index, the interest towards it has started to be evaluated in terms of other countries. In this context, while the existence of studies investigating the relations between the index and the Istanbul Stock Exchange index is noteworthy, it has been determined that some of these researches have relations, and some of them not. The existence of spillovers from strong exchanges to stock markets of developing countries is defined as spillover effects in the literature. From this point of view, it is worth examining the existence of the relationship in question with indirect effects rather than investigating direct relationships between the GEPU and BIST100. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the existence of spillover effects from GEPU to S&P, from S&P to the exchange rate and from the exchange rate to the BIST100 index, respectively. According to the results of VAR analysis using four variables, it has been found that there are spillover effects from GEPU to S&P, from S & P to exchange rate and from exchange rate to BIST100. Consequently, it is observed that the changes in GEPU index that reflect the developments in the US economy affect Turkey’s stock market indirectly through spillover linkages.

Technological developments resulting from military expenditures increase competitiveness. This fact also increases exports based on military technology and foreign currency revenues. Indirectly, the increased competitiveness in the military sector contributes to the development of technologies that can be used in the civilian field after a while. It also contributes positively to the export revenues of the country by creating competitive power in the civilian sectors with the delayed effects of the superiority in the military field. Therefore, military expenditures, which are generally described as inefficient expenditures, are expected to both encourage innovation and, when used in civilian areas, stimulate, the high-tech exports. This study aims at investigating the relationships among military expenditures and inventiveness as a measure of efficiency of military expenditures, and high technology goods which are the reflection of efficiency in inventiveness. In the study covering 16 countries and the period of 1991-2018, panel regression estimates are made. As a result of the regression estimates, military expenditures seem to affect the patent positively, so findings support the first hypothesis. The effect of military expenditures on the medium and high technology goods exports is, contrary to the expectation, negative; which means the second hypothesis is not supported. This result might require studies covering much longer periods.

Corruption, defined as “abuse of public power for private interests” is a concept with economic, political, legal and socio-cultural determinants. Measurement of corruption, which differs from country to country, is not possible, but perception of corruption can be measured. The purpose of the study is to test only the determinants of the economic determinants' relationship with corruption. In this context, the impact of macroeconomic performance indicators on corruption in APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) countries for the period of 2001-2017 was analyzed by the panel-ordered qualitative preference method. Macroeconomic performance indicators are determined as growth, inflation, unemployment, income inequality and openness, and the openness variable is defined by the commercial globalization index. Corruption perception index is dependent variable and the highest value of the index is 0 and the lowest value is 10. Since the corruption perception index used as a dependent variable is an ordered variable, ordered qualitative preference models are used. According to the findings obtained as a result of econometric analysis, as the per capita GDP and commercial globalization index increases, the corruption index also increases, in other words, the corruption decreases. As the inflation rate and Gini coefficient (income inequality) increase, the corruption index decreases and corruption increases. As the unemployment rate increases, the corruption index first increases (corruption decreases), then decreases (corruption increases). It is concluded that macroeconomic performance indicators are more effective at lower levels of corruption and is higher likely to effect the lower level of corruption. Therefore, it has been revealed that corruption will decrease in countries that can increase the income level and reduce the unemployment by ensuring its fair distribution, increase the degree of integration with the world economy and keep the inflation rate low., “Kamu gücünün özel çıkarlar için kötüye kullanılması” olarak tanımlanan yolsuzluk ekonomik, politik, hukuki ve sosyo-kültürel belirleyicileri olan bir kavramdır. Ülkeden ülkeye farklılık gösteren yolsuzluğun ölçümü ise pek mümkün olmamakla birlikte yolsuzluk algı ölçümü yapılabilmektedir. Çalışmanın amacı söz konusu belirleyicilerden yalnızca ekonomik belirleyicilerin yolsuzluk ile ilişkisini test etmektir. Bu kapsamda 2001-2017 dönemi için APEC (Asya Pasifik Ekonomik İşbirliği) ülkelerinde makroekonomik performans göstergelerinin yolsuzluğa etkisi panel sıralı nitel tercih yöntemi ile analiz edilmiştir. Makroekonomik performans göstergeleri büyüme, enflasyon, işsizlik, gelir eşitsizliği ve dışa açıklık olarak belirlenmiş, dışa açıklık değişkeni ticari küreselleşme endeksi ile tanımlanmıştır. Yolsuzluk algı endeksi bağımlı değişkendir ve endeksin en yüksek değeri 0, en düşük değeri 10’dur. Bağımlı değişken olarak kullanılan yolsuzluk algılama endeksi sıralı bir değişken olduğu için sıralı nitel tercih modelleri kullanılmıştır. Ekonometrik analizler sonucu elde edilen bulgulara göre kişi başına GSYH ve ticari küreselleşme endeksi arttıkça yolsuzluk endeks değeri de artmakta, diğer bir ifadeyle yolsuzluk azalmaktadır. Enflasyon oranı ve Gini katsayısı (gelir eşitsizliği) arttıkça yolsuzluk endeks değeri azalmakta, yolsuzluk artmaktadır. İşsizlik oranı arttıkça yolsuzluk endeks değeri önce artmakta (yolsuzluk azalmakta), sonra azalmaktadır (yolsuzluk artmakta). Çalışmada makroekonomik performans göstergelerinin yolsuzluğun düşük düzeylerinde daha etkili ve düşük yolsuzluk düzeyini etkileme olasılığının ise daha yüksek olduğu sonucu elde edilmiştir. Dolayısıyla gelir seviyesini artırabilen ve bunun adil dağıtımını sağlayarak işsizliği azaltan, dünya ekonomisi ile entegrasyon derecesini yükselten ve enflasyon oranını düşük tutabilen ülkelerde yolsuzluğun da düşeceği ortaya koyulmuştur.

Çin ile ABD arasında ortaya çıkan ticaret savaşı olgusu, tarihsel köken itibarıyla neo-merkantilizm olarak adlandırılmaktadır. ABD uyguladığı merkantilist politika uygulamaları ile ekonomisini koruma amacı gütmektedir. ABD’nin iddiası, Çin’in haksız rekabet unsurları ile dış ticarette aleyhte bir yapı ortaya çıkardığı yönündedir. Çin ise ABD’nin merdiveni itme güdüsü ile kendini korumaya çalıştığını vurgulamaktadır. Çalışmada ABD’nin argümanı olan kura dayalı rekabet olgusu ile Çin’in maliyete dayalı rekabet konusu ekonometrik analizlere tabi tutulmuştur. Elde edilen analiz sonuçlarına göre Çin’in ABD ile olan dış ticaretinde çeşitli mamul eşya (SITC-8) grubunda en yüksek rekabet gücüne sahiptir. Bunu sırasıyla, başlıca sınıflara ayrılan işlenmiş mallar (SITC-6), makine ve taşıt araçları (SITC-7) mal grupları takip etmektedir. Elde edilen bulgularda Çin’in sadece döviz kuruna dayalı bir rekabet gücü olmadığı; sermaye birikimi ve rekabet gücündeki iyileşmelerin ihracatını artırmada önemli rol oynadığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Bu çalışmada hemen her ülkenin büyüme/kalkınma sürecinde doğal ve/veya politik ekonomi tercihleri sonucu yaşanan bölgeler ve iller arası dengesizlikler Erzurum özelinde ele alınmış, yaşanan sosyo-ekonomik gerileme süreci Bursa ve Kocaeli illeri ile karşılaştırmalı olarak verilmiştir. Erzurum, XIX. yüzyılın sonu ve hatta I. Dünya Savaşına kadar ekonomik ve siyasal açıdan önemli bir merkez konumundayken savaş sonrası oluşan düzende genç cumhuriyetin Batı illeri merkezli kalkınma çabalarının bir yansıması olarak ekonomik düşüş yaşanmaya başlamıştır. Ancak, asıl düşüş 1979’da İslam Cumhuriyeti kuran ve Irak ile savaşmaya başlayan İran’a uygulanan ambargo ile gerçekleşmiş ve bu da şehrin canlılığını olumsuz yönde etkilemiştir. 24 Ocak 1980 Kararları ile politik iktisatta radikal dönüşüm ve 80’li yıllarda başlayan ayrılıkçı terör, Osmanlı’da üçüncü büyük gümrük kenti olan Erzurum’u hâlihazırda Türkiye’nin geri kalmış illeri seviyesine düşürmüştür. Bu gelişmelerin kaçınılmaz sonucu ortaya çıkan göç, aynı zamanda az gelişmişliği besleyen unsurlardan olmuştur. Çözüm arayışları içerisinde, kamunun genelde önemli bir ekonomik potansiyele sahip olan Doğuya ve özelde de Erzurum gibi kentlere ayırımcı politikalar izlemesi ve kalkınmanın sanayileşme ile eş anlamlı olduğu gerçeği dikkate alınarak karşılaştırmalı üstünlük yapısına uygun sanayileşmeye ağırlık verilmesi gerektiği ileri sürülebilir. Aksi takdirde, Doğudaki merkez illerdeki boşalma, çevre illerde de boşalmayı tetikleyecek ve bu süreç Türkiye’nin Batısında kalabalıklaşmayı ve metropol maliyetleri arttıracaktır., Erzurum was an important economic and political center until the end of the 19th century and even until the First World War. In the post-war order, the economic decline, which is a reflection of the young republic's development efforts based on Western provinces, has begun. However, the real decline occurred in 1979 with the embargo imposed on Iran, which established the Islamic Republic and started to fight Iraq, and these caused a blow to the vitality of the city. A radical transformation in political economics occurred with 24 January decisions and separatist terrorism have already reduced Erzurum, which is the third largest city of Ottoman customs, underdeveloped provincial level. Migration emerged as the inevitable consequence of all these factors has also been one of the elements that feeds the underdevelopment. This regression process is given in comparison with Bursa and Kocaeli provinces. In pursuit of a solution, the public should pursue discriminatory policies in the East and in particular in cities such as Erzurum and considering the fact that development is synonymous with industrialization, it can be argued that industrialization should be focused on in accordance with the comparative advantage structure. Otherwise, discharge in the central provinces in the East will trigger discharge in the provinces in the hinterland and this process will deepen the crowding that will keep the West from being livable.

With the increasing globalization, countries’ competitive power on international markets has gained importance. One of the most prevalent methods which is used to determine countries’ comparative advantages on which field and, thereby their international competitive power is “Explained Comparative Advantages” or “Balassa Index” developed by Balassa (1965). If index value that is attained by calculating index is higher than 50, country’s competitive power on that good is high; if the index value is less than 50, competitive power on that good is low. In this study, 4 countries are selected according to their accessibility of the data, for these countries, variance on the competitive power is examined in terms of defense industry with Balassa Index. In the study, counter arguments with globalization logic, that is, especially in defense industry reduction of external dependence when considered even Adam Smith gave approval anti liberal implementations about this subject, in the countries which are exposed to domestic and foreign oppression, searching for detractive precaution on external dependence is more likely high. In the analysis to test this hypothesis, while competition pursuit on defense industry is triggering self-reliance in stressful economies, it is high in economies that have weak military alliance.

It cannot be said that military expenditure and economic growth relationship have reached a consensus both theoretically and empirically. The basic argument of the claim that military spending will increase national income is that if the economy is unemployed, the increase in spending, including military spending, will increase national income by expanding demand. Whereas, the argument that military spending will have a negative impact on the national income is claimed due to causing the inefficiency of the resources in the economy and thus to suppress the growth by causing resource mobility from productive sectors to the non-productive sectors. On the purpose of determining which of these two opposing ideas whether committed in Turkey’s economy, military expenditures have been added to Solow growth model and econometric analyzes have involved the period of 1980-2016. In the light of findings, it is revealed that second type of hypothesis is valid that military spending has a negative effect on economic growth.

Uzbekistan, one of the highest population density and historically most influential countries in the Central Asian countries, has gained political independence in 1991. Among the transition economies during the post-independence period, it is noteworthy that Uzbekistan was the reformist country at the outset, however the most striking feature is the stagnation of reforms in the ongoing time frame. In this context, incorporation into the world economy, there has been a rapid growth in foreign trade with border countries, in particularly Russia, China and Turkey. In the study, Uzbekistan's foreign trade was examined for the period of 1995-2016, and with using Balassa index, which goods groups were superior and which were weaker were researched. In the analysis according to SITC Rev.3, Uzbekistan's competitive power against its natural resource rich neighbors like Russia and Kazakhstan is weaker outside a few sectors; whereas the need for natural resources such as Turkey and China were found to be high across the high country of the competitiveness. This indicates that a competitive power based on natural resources has developed in the country's economy. In other words, it is observed that Uzbekistan has remained its competitive power based on natural resources in general and has also made a breakthrough in various processed goods and chemical sectors recent years. It can be said that this last development will contribute to the development of the emphasis on supporting policy implementations.

Per capita income and income distribution are defined as classical Kuznets curve. From this view, the relationship between per capita income and income distribution is controlled variables and studies that take environmental pollution, financial depth, or trade volume into account are widely seen in the literature according to the study objectives. Respectively, these applications can be named first as environmental Kuznets and secondly as financial Kuznets. As parallel to this view, the studies that emphasize the relationship between export and income distribution are common in the literature, representing economic liberalization. It is also worth noting that political liberalization whether political rights or civil liberties, supports the trend that emerges like the Kuznets’ curve, according to the level of development of the countries. In this study, when the level of national development is taken into consideration, the relationships between per capita income and economic and political liberalization practices have been tested with econometric tests, whether they follow a classical, environmental, commercial or financial Kuznets-like situation. In addition to the classical, environmental, commercial and financial Kuznets, the existence of the “political liberalization practices” will be discussed in the literature in order to overlap the theoretical expectations and the results of this study. In the analysis of the 2012 horizontal cross-section of the country group with the highest Gini coefficient, Kuznets' “inverse U” view is reflected in both commercial and political liberalization dimensions.

The discovery of natural resources and its impact on the increase in export revenues is highly likely to affect production, consumption and foreign trade relations of non-natural resources sectors. The inertia condition created by the resource exploration is defined as the curse of natural resources. Additionally, the curse of the resources reveals negative repercussions such as the Dutch Disease, rent-seeking, overconfidence and neglect education. Within this aspect, the Dutch disease can be defined as a mechanism emerging through the discovery of natural resources and its exports, which causes negativity in other export products. As the disease will be expected to come out, war and embargo practices can also be considered to be self-sufficiency in diversity in the local/national economy. In this framework, it is discussed in this study, whether Iran falls to the Dutch Disability, or it is organized by external forces the period between 1980 and 2014. According to findings obtained from the time series analyzes, the natural resource richness was determined in Iran if the presence of the Dutch disease is not strong. In recent years, however, it can be said that the weakness of the disease has led to the war and embargo that Iran experienced especially in self-sufficiency.

Intra industry trade is goods and services with the same or similar factor intensity in production or, two-way trade of goods and services that are close substitutes for each other as the demand side. There are two main categories of intra-industry trade: horizontal and vertical intra-industry trade. Intra-industry trade in similar products with differentiated varieties is horizontal intra-industry trade, the intra-industry trade of differentiated goods, which differ in terms of quality and price, is vertical intra trade. The main objectives of this paper are to explain the extent of vertical and horizontal intra-industry trade in the Turkey’s foreign trade with the world in the selected manufacturing industry sectors. İn this study, using Abd-el-Rahman (1991) and Hine, Greenaway and Milner(1995) approach of Intra-ındustry trade decomposition methods has been analyzed the extent and development of vertical and horizontal intra-industry trade In the selected manufacturing industry sub-sectors between Turkey and The World for the period 2010:01-2016:11 by unit value indices.

Entrepreneurship, which is one of the most important elements of the production-supply dimension of the economy, is also the main determinants of economic growth, including economic growth in the context of positive externalities emerging from the information age. It is clear that the development is linked to industrialization, which is related to spirit of innovative thinking. Therefore, undeveloped must be considered in concert with the lack of innovative thinking. According to Schumpeter, who defines entrepreneurship in such an understanding as "the replacement of the present and the future of Pareto Optimum with tomorrow's new and different things," this factor also encompasses innovation. Therefore, factors such as the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the risk perception profile and the socio-economic, socio-cultural and demographic structure of the population in which it is located can have significant effects on the development and development of entrepreneurship. In this study, it is aimed to investigate what factors are more effective on the perception of entrepreneurship by using the statistical methods on Erzincan University Students, taking into consideration that today's students will be the future production factor (labor or enterprise). Another important goal of the paper is to determine whether the entrepreneurship factor, which has a significant role in the development of the country and especially in urban development, is based on scientific or traditional elements. It can be considered that the existence and sustainability of the enterprise spirit will be tested with the awareness of the opportunities and opportunities for incentives to act rationally.

It has been revealed both in the theoretical and the applied studies that the trade of goods in the traditional foreign trade theories reflects the prosperity indicators of the countries such as economic growth and employment positively. In the 1970s, especially with the developments on financial globalization, the foreign trade structure has started to evolve, and the service trade has started to become more and more important or weighted. While the literature on competitiveness is related to the commodity trade, it is noteworthy that there are more limited studies on the results and suggestions of the competition power in service trade. In this study Balassa’s (1965) RCA (Revealed Comparative Advantages) approach was used to determine Turkey's competitive power on service trade. In this context, Turkey has tried to measure competition power against the world in each service sub sector related to the classification of traditional service sector such as tourism and transportation and other service sectors (telecommunication, financial services, insurance etc.) which are defined as modern services sector. It is analyzed with using annual data between 1980 and 2015 obtained from the UNCTAD. According to findings the competitive power in the tourism sector with traditional services is stronger in Turkey. This can be seen generally disadvantageous in the transportation sector, but there has been some increase in competition power since 2009. On the other hand, in the field of other service sectors expressed as modern services, it is concluded that there is no competitive power and it is highly disadvantaged.

Gerni, Cevat (Dogus Author) -- Conference full title: 2017 International Conference on Eurasian Economies, Bishkek; Kyrgyzstan; 5 October 2017 through 7 October 2017. Become more intense in the 1980s, in parallel with globalization movements that make up the world economy, the driving forces of economic growth in the search for macro-economic policies have also changed. The importance of international trade for economic growth was seen years ago and it is a known fact that many theories have been put forward. Classical economists have made various researches around the idea of providing economic growth with international trade theories. In this context, after 1992, the Central Asian countries work in this subject area wanted to complete the transition in the economic sense by structural reforms and economic growth. Therefore, the panel date analysis about the effect of international trade on growth will be examined on Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. In the finding obtained, exports and capital accumulation were found to have a positive effect on growth.

The argument of natural resources’ curse explains that natural resource wealth of the country, leading to a kind of inertia in the economy causes “spendthrift” position. Accordingly, in the first place, the discovery of natural resources and its price rise have positive repercussions on country’s income and welfare. In the long run, obtained this easy enrichment may well lead to remain barren of other sectors and also affect negatively on diversification of national income and export in natural resource-rich countries. In this study, along with the collapse of the former eastern bloc, the functioning of the argument of natural resources’ curse in the natural resources-rich four transition economies, as the subject of descriptive study was conducted. In the literature of natural resources’ curse, with creating crowding-out effect, natural resources income might well brake to the development of other sectors. In addition, this situation is defined such that with increasing weight of defense industry among other sectors in aggregate income and employment, also not transferred to the social and physical infrastructure investment, particularly in education. In this study, it is examined whether there is oil prices sensitivity on the export, employment, public expenditure and national income in natural resource-rich transition economies. From the analysis results, it can be said that there is significant movements between oil prices and chosen variables and considering those findings, strong/powerful of natural resources’ curse is on process for chosen transition economies.

Discussions on economic productivity, in micro analysis aspects there is direct causal relationship between increases or decreases in the production and productivity, whereas it can be said that productivity is based on economic recession or growth in macro analysis aspects. In the literature, while Classical theoreticians is attributed that the source of growth is the marginal productivity of capital, neoclassic school claims that marginal productivity difference provide benefit the country from behind for realization of the convergence hypothesis. Furthermore, increasing efficiency and as the factors this increase efficiency human capital, learning by doing concepts and technology are focused in the endogenous growth theories. In this study, human capital, physical capital per worker, exports per worker, gender differences, fertility, life expectancy and dependent population ratio were determined as determinants of labor productivity. In respect to labor productivity, variables are divided to three main groups in order to economic demographic and social and psychological factors. The variables are placed with taking five years average due to the fact that those variables’ effects reveal themselves more clearly in the long term. In the paper, it was investigated by panel data analysis considering groups of developed and developing countries between 1960 and 2010 period. In this context the degree of efficiency may well be discussed with parameters of selected variables for productivity of labor. Additionally, within framework of descriptive statistics the differences and similarities between countries were interpreted for political recommendations to developing countries how to increase productivity for catching developed countries’ growth trend.

Sudden fluctuations that occur as results of politicians’ manipulation on the macroeconomic variables during the election period are called as Political Business Cycle. In recent years, exchange rate also has become an important subject of many studies in this framework. Before the elections, to gain the public’s votes, politicians firstly put pressure on the exchange rates to prevent currency depreciation, and then this can lead to manipulative fluctuations. In this respect, during the 1992:01-2014:12 periods in Turkey, the impact of the entire local and general elections on the real exchange rate volatility is examined using E-GARCH method. On the other hand, political variables such as independence of Central Bank, exchange rate regime, the number of representatives of the ruling party in the parliament and coalition are included to the model while the pre and after election period from the 1st to the 6th month as dummy variables. Based on the results of the analysis, it can be said that the elections and the political variables affect the real exchange rate and its volatility in Turkey. However, there is no significant evidence whether the politicians act opportunistic behavior to be reelected. Since the uncertainty during the election period cause outflow of the capital and deferral of the investment decisions of the investors until after the election, it may well be said that the politicians fail to influence the real exchange rate for their self-interests.

In the period after transition, economically full-liberal policy implementations applied by Russia Federation has been taken attention as cyclical movement. No variations of goods are said to be effective about the main reasons about cyclical movement in liberalization. As a kind of indicator of the Russian economy, stock market’s sensitivity to oil prices analyzed. In this context, especially change of oil prices, exchange rate and money supply effects on Russia are analyzed for the period of 1996M1-2015M12. Stationarity of the series is investigated by Lee and Strazicich (2003) unit root test with multiple structural breaks, existence of cointegration relation between series is tested by Maki (2012) method of cointegration with multiple structural break, and cointegration coefficients are predicted with Dynamic Ordinary Learst Square-DOLS method. Furthermore, causality relations between series are investigated by Hacker and Hatemi-J (2012) symmetric causality test. As a result, Russian stock market is positively affected by oil prices, real effective exchange rate and real money supply. Also causality tests showed that bidirectional causality relation found on stock market with oil prices and real effective exchange rate, and unidirectional causality from real money supply to stock market.

The effects of the military expenditure on the economic growth and consequently on the employment has been the primary topic of the discussing in the literature of economics. Considering that the military expenditures generally emerge as a sub-item of the public spending, it has been asserted by the liberal approach that the principle of the non-productiveness of the public sector would be even more applicable in the military expenditures. None the less, using the military spending as a tool to lead an economy that feature underemployment constitutes the positive aspect of the views to the military expenditure and this is also the case of the prediction of the Keynesian economy. In this study, the effects of the military expenditure on the unemployment, which is a reflection of the effects of the economic growth, are analyzed as the subject matter. The findings revealed that the military spending has positive effects on the unemployment in some G20 states while it also has negative effects in some and has neutral effects in others. In addition, it is further indicated that the positive effects are experienced in relatively advanced economies, the negative effects emerge in relatively less developed economies, and the countries with abundant natural resources experience neutral effects.

As economic growth is very important for the development of individuals and the society, the importance of capital stocks and labor force for the economic growth of countries cannot be neglected. Additionally, the human capital component and especially the role of competitiveness increases on the growth process have been extensively discussed over the last two decades. This paper examines the impact of competitiveness increases on economic growth of selected middle-income countries including Turkey for the period of 1997-2012 using a balanced panel data analysis, which was relatively less studied in the literature. According to analysis results, an increase on the competitiveness index of countries in the panel, which were obtained from the data set of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), positively increases per capita income level. This result may be interpreted as several factors that increase competitiveness including infrastructure, economic structure, business world and regulations and investments that ensure public efficiency may have a positive impact on economic growth. Therefore, this study suggests that future policies that concentrate on extensive growth instead of intensive dimension may contribute to efficient and sustainable growth.

Gerni, Cevat (Dogus Author) Together with starting to observe the situations like the development differences seen between the countries after industrial revolution between the cities and regions of the countries. This situation leads some of the cities to emigrate and some other cities to become more crowded. The negative externalities emerging in migrationreceiving cities make the life in those cities intolerable, whilst the decreasing population of emigrant cities triggers the decrease in both of demand and supply that is a production factor. The reflection of this situation shows itself as the cycle of “migration-revenue decrease-migration”. Through the investment incentives given to underdeveloped regions in order to prevent the migration that is a reflection of regional imbalances, it is aimed to decrease the imbalances by increasing the employment and revenue. The incentives applied in the year after statistical region classification in Turkey consist of incentives in periods of 2004-2008 and 2009-2012. In this study, it has been examined if there is any convergence between the income per capita in city and region axes, and if the incentives have any influence on this convergence. The investment incentives prepared in accordance with the realities of the cities eliminate the development differences by creating more efficient results. As a policy argument, it can be asserted that the incentive implementations considering the comparative superiorities of the cities will play more important roles in both of ensuring the efficient use of the resources and closing the development differences.

Since 2007 long staying in the middle income group or especially unable to state a higher category, has begun to be considered as middle-income trap (MIT). According to World Bank (WB) classification, in 1955, Turkey reached to lower-middle income countries category from low-income category and staying there about 50 years. In 2004 Turkey has been reached constantly to upper-middle income countries category. However, last three years’ low growth figures and reaching 20% of the US income per capita have created many discussions whether Turkey entered in MIT. Besides, in parallel the integration of Turkish Economy to the world economy and to be exposed financial flows because of the world expansionary policies may result to have excessive appreciation of the national currency and to seem overvalued than real level of GDP in dollars. In emerging artificial bloating in income per capita is a result of undervaluation on the exchange rate. Therefore, in this study; the correct exchange rate is calculated with using base year determined depending on current account deficit’s minimum valued year or years which is assumed correct value of the exchange rate. By using calculated exchange rate, examined new GDP per capita series shows that Turkish economy could not reach the threshold 10000-12000 dollars despite being included in upper-middle income group in the WB classification. Furthermore, according to other classifications which are investigating MIT, it is also reached that Turkey has been placed in MIT long time period due to exchange rate pressures in terms of Turkey reached upper middle income position.

Triple deficit hypothesis defined as a status in which budget deficit, current account deficit and saving-investment gap are seen together has become important to explain the equalization problems of the countries in recent years. Also, the cases where saving-investment gaps are equalized by means of external deficit or public deficit is attempted to equalize by means of external deficit define twin deficit. While Conventional Keynesian Approach argues that budget deficit causes current account deficit, Ricardian Equivalence Approach claims that there is no correlation between budget deficit and current account deficit. In this study, the validity of the triple deficit hypothesis for the 17 transition economies between 2003-2011 by means of convenient and uninterrupted data set was analyzed via panel regression models. The data set was collected from World Bank and IMF databases. The data belonging to the variables of current account deficit, budget deficit and saving-investment gap were employed. The findings showed that the triple deficit hypothesis for the 17 transition economies is not valid in the period among 2003-2011. However, some evidence was found about the validity of Ricardian Equivalence Approach and the private sector saving-investment gap was found to be the primary riser of the current account deficit.

It is propounded that there are two motivations behind foreign direct investments (FDI). One of them is to invest in foreign countries because of trade barrier to export. In this case foreign investors operate in import substitution industries (ISI). The second fact to invest in another country away from homeland is to get benefit from cost advantages such as cheap labor and inputs, positioning closed to developed countries. With this aspect foreign investors operate in export oriented sectors (EOS). The economic consequences were discussed lighting on study’s aim examining the FDI to Transitions Countries whether are ISI or EOS. The foreign direct investments to Transitions Countries were investigated by panel data analysis. First and second generation unit root tests and cross section dependency tests were applied. Long and short term regressions were realized. The data set were obtained from Word Bank Data Base and annually data were collected between 1993 and 2012. Theoretically and statistically expected coefficients and coefficient’s sign for explanatory variables have been obtained. It is as a result observed that the countries have higher internal market potential to take foreign direct investments to import substitution industries. The countries close to developed economies have been drawing foreign direct investments to export oriented sectors.

Together with the destruction of Berlin Wall in 1989 and fall of The Soviets 1991, one of the basic problems of transition economies is the matter of high inflation. The underlying factor of the high and/or hyperinflation process is the rupture of input relations and its negative supply shocks. Emergence of inflationary structure brought irregularity in macroeconomic indicators, too. Many structural adjustments were created in order to lighten the effects of transition process; and improvements were tried to be done in economic indicators such as inflation interest, budget balance and foreign debt which is the reflection of current deficit. In efforts for improving basic economic indicators Maastricht criteria were accepted as the basic criteria due to the fact that they are compulsory for membership process for some transition economies and others optionally accepted them as they are examples. Therefore, in this study based on Maastricht criteria, the convergence of transition economies to these criteria were accepted as success indicator and concordantly it was studied in which proportion the policy implementations are/aren’t successful or whether they correspond to theoretical expectations. In this study it was aimed to test the matter of fact which is accepted as criteria convergence in literature and with panel data analysis it was tried to reveal whether convergence come true in terms of criteria. Hence, the difference between the countries that provided discipline and those do not provided it is found and its effects to development performance is clearly determined.

Nowadays, it is the main target of all countries to generate information and make a technological product by commercializing the information. However, the countries are limited to developed countries. They can invest more in R&D and transmit new technologies created by their strong economic structure and sufficient human capital, to production process. Conversely, other countries can achieve their technological development as adaptation of imported technology to local conditions. Moreover, regional development has gained a new meaning to obtain regional competitiveness; no longer has regional development referred more than a plane being only an implementation of central policies aimed to reduce disparities among regions. As a result of all changes, firms have tried to integrate with the world as well as build their presence in the regional basis. However, the firms don’t have any qualification and resources to follow technological innovation continuously in the increasing global competition. For this reason, it is to emerge a requirement to build a partnership among the firms sharing same geographical space and industry. In this regard, by creating clusters at both national and regional level, policymakers aim to make their firms more competitive in the global race. In this study, it is discussed competitive, its effects on regional policy, and cluster policy as a regional policy tool. The main purpose of the study is to determine the effects of cluster in the context of competition and to provide a preliminary study on what might be done for successful policy application.

On the basis of volatility or sharp fluctuations in macroeconomic variables, especially in the 1970s, it can be said to play a role in deepening the financial capital deepening. Deepening on volatility forms the basis of not only domestic and but also international economic deviations. With the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, a lot of countries have attempted to liberalize. This situation has caused volatility on mainly rate of exchange then many macroeconomics variables. In this aspect, the multi-relationship between volatility in foreign trade balance and the real interest rate, exchange rate and reserves’ volatility are investigated empirically with the appropriate set of data on 11 transition economies for the period 1996-2011. In this study, the effects of the volatility of foreign trade (netxvol) on the exchange rate volatility (kurvol), reserve volatility (rezvol), and real interest rates subjected with using panel data analysis. Moreover to regression analysis, centred on Granger Causality Test the volatility of the foreign trade balance, import and export volatility, exchange rate volatility, volatility of reserves and try to determine the causal relationship between the real interest rate. The findings have light on that the volatility of trade balance was mostly affected to the volatility of the reserve. It may well be said that the volatility of the interest rate and the exchange rate at the independence of the trade predispose to speculative movements.

This study examined the effects of competitiveness on the economic growth of transition countries between the years 1995 and 2009. Panel ARDL (Autoregressive distributed lag) models were applied for 23 countries. The competitiveness of industrial sectors and sub-sectors were calculated by Balassa index, and the effects of the indexes on transition economies (TEs) were checked via the control variables of: capital formation per capita, and globalization index in the Cobb-Douglas production function framework. The findings indicate that some sectors affect TEs positively whereas others affect them negatively.

Corruption defined as the exploitation of the public institute for personal benefit has displayed itself in many societies in different ways throughout the history. Lack of information regarding presence and pervasiveness of corruption in central planning economies has been removed as a result of a transition to free market economies and the phenomenon of corruption has begun to be examined through diverse angles. Thus, in this study, the determinants of corruption were investigated and corruption-growth relationship was examined between 2002 and 2010. As for the parameters believed to determine corruption, openness of economy, size of the public, economic freedom, political stability, GDP per capita, urbanization growth rate, inflation, EBRD and HDI index regarding education and health were taken into consideration. Investigation of the relationship between the CPI (Corruption index) and the aforementioned variables and corruption-growth relationship were analyzed by means of panel data analysis.

Central Asia both of which became politically independent in 1991 resemble each other with respect to social-cultural life. The most remarkable difference between them is of richness in terms of natural resources. In the 15 years process, a substantial jump in Central Asia economies has been observed while Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan economies could even not reach its income level in 1991. Despite these differences in terms of economic structure, it is seen that of them have a tendency to get increasingly indebted and has no direct contribution to their economic growth.

1989 and the years following 1991 were the times in which many important economic and political turnovers had taken place in the world. That was the time when Berlin Wall fall down with scattering the Eastern block and many politically and economically independent states came into being, at the same time, ongoing about 70 years socialist system also started to spin into liberal system. The constituted 27 states in 1991 were tended to liberal economic system instead of socialist economy, and these stated were called as transition economies. With the transition period, there has have been significant decreases in the level of affluence, hyperinflation and some common properties seen at the beginning. It became inevitable to get foreign debt for reorganization and configuration of these economies. Nevertheless these foreign debts caused many serious problems in some of these economies. In the present work we tried to understand the economic structure and external loans of the transition economies, which are different with respect to their natural resources and are similar to each other in term of social, political and cultural aspects. It was under debated to investigate the relationship between indicated foreign debts and indicated domestic income and external trade so foreign trade financing problematic which thought to be the source of going into debt and economical development relations are searched.

In the literature on economic growth, Kuznets curve shows the relationship between growth and income distribution. According to the Kuznets curve, as per capita income rises, income distribution would first become more unequal, and then less unequal. This means that, in a less developed country poverty is shared; in a developing country the difference between the rich and the poor becomes wider; and in a developed country richness is shared. In economies in transition, from socialism to market economy, however, income distribution should be less unequal because of the socialist system. But during the transition, there occurred recessions that led to falls in income. Therefore, during the transition process, as income decreased, income distribution became more unequal. In this study, the relationship between per capita income and income distribution on the transition economies are investigated by means of panel data analysis. The results obtained are then compared with the Kuznets curve.

In the world economy, since 1960s, countries, which are open and apply liberal policies succeeded higher economic growth and welfare. Therefore, liberal policies became more attractive. In that case, the transition, which has political, economic, and socio-cultural aspects, means moving from socialist-authoritarian structure to market based-liberal structures. In the literature, there are many studies which point out labor force and capital are not significant on the economic growth. In addition, the literature focuses on the importance of institutions on the economic growth. In this study, we compare the countries which were quickly away from the socialist structures with the countries which were slow on the reforms. Our analysis depends on their economic growth with cross section. However, we know the importance of institutional aspects on the growth research; therefore, we applied 2SLS regression analysis and to determine the economic liberalism indicators we used political rights, civil liberties, years that were under the socialism, openness, secondary school ratio, and public spending/GDP ratio. In the late phase, GDP per capita, as an indicator of economic growth, is explained with an independent variable which is predicted in the first phase via liberalism variable, and labor-population ratio and constant capital stock GDP ratio variables used in Neo-classical Solow-type growth model.

Considering the performance of growth, it is observed that the Central Asian Turkish republics achieved their income levels of 1991, the year they gained political independence, very lately as compared to the other transition economies. It is argued that those factors such as enterprise restructuring and insufficient political rights and individual freedoms came into play for their failure. Thus, it can be said that reflections which are described as economic growth flourishes privately from the lack of entrepreneurship, and also lack of entrepreneurship stems mostly from insufficient libertarian structures. In this paper, enterprise restructuring and price liberalization values published periodically by European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the indicators of political rights and civil liberties published by Freedom House are taken into consideration, and the effects of these on economic growth and/or on human development as a much comprehensive indicator are investigated. In this perspective, instead of the effects of quantitative variables, the effects of four important qualitative variables on Central Asian Republics’ growth/human development are studied.

After the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1991 the newly independent Turkic republics have experienced a transition recession that is relatively more severe and longer as compared to the case of the Central and Eastern transition economies. The lack of political and socio-economic institutional infrastructure needed for transition is argued as the key factor of this process. The efforts of these countries to integrate with the world markets by force of economic liberalization, the term which is used as the synonym of the transition, constitute the pivot. In the process of liberalizing the commodity markets exports and imports take the most important place. With the process of transition, in the Turkic republics, the production linkages, in other words input interdependencies, which had been formed during Soviet era, broke out and hence production bottlenecks and hyperinflations occurred. While negative supply shocks are expected to overcome in the years 2000s, it is also expected that exports and economic growth relationships as the result of market economy and trade liberalization barely arise. This study concerns the exports and economic growth relationships which forms a trivet of liberalization applications in the Turkic republics. Nevertheless, there is a vest literature that suggests that for exports and outward-orientation to effectively affect economic growth a country should attain a minimum level of development. In this context, the relationships between exports and economic growth in the Turkic republics will be investigated using panel data and causality tests.