Regional income convergence in Turkey: An empirical analysis from an endogenous growth perspective

Abstract

This study analyzes convergence among regions of Turkey from an endogenous growth perspective. The results show that human capital, which is represented with R&D personnel, has a negative impact on economic growth in the regions based on its percentage in total employment. Moreover, we find that there is an estimated U-shaped relationship, which implies that if the percentage of R&D personnel in total employment increases after a certain level, the effect has a tendency of turning positive; the west region is especially closer to having a positive effect. However, regarding convergence, the relatively high-income west is closer to experiencing the positive effect of R&D personnel. Moreover, due to the relatively low percentage of R&D personnel in the east region, the economic growth of the east region is more negatively affected by R&D personnel. Therefore, using a strategy that is based on increasing the percentage of R&D personnel cannot help the east region to close the differences in income.