Government Support and Employment of Manufacturing SMEs

Purpose: This study aims to examine how government incentives affect SME employment in Türkiye's manufacturing sector. Methodology: The dataset used in this study was derived from a survey conducted by a privately owned London-based company with the assistance of Türkiye's Ministry of Industry and Technology. Ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares regression techniques were used to analyze the relationship between government incentives and employment. Findings: In the analysis, we found that between 2013 and 2016, jobs were created by Turkish manufacturing SMEs with the use of state assistance. Firm-level characteristics, including firms' age, capacity utilization rate, and innovative activities, were also found to have a substantial impact on SME employment. Originality: Our study is the first to examine the impact of incentives on employment in manufacturing SMEs in Türkiye using a micro dataset administered to 10.063 manufacturing firms by the Ministry of Industry and Technology.