The European Integration of the Turkish Industry: A Trade Analysis

Abstract

This paper analyzes the European integration of the Turkish industry in view of a comparative trade analysis of the Turkish economy and the EU economies. We perform a thorough depiction of the various aspects of the trade integration of Turkey, most notably in the fields of the trade patterns, geographical concentrations, sectoral distributions, openness, industrial structures, competitiveness and the intra industry trade. We further provide an innovative quantification for the Bridge-effect in Turkey. Our results suggest that a sufficient Europeanization of the Turkish industry is not yet achieved and lacks in many measurable domains, such as in the structural composition, openness, competitive position and the intra-industry trade. Nevertheless, the findings also suggest that the trend is positively aligned to approach the EU structures in the medium- to long-term of the accession process.

Keywords: Intra Industry Trade, Openness, Comparative Advantage, Economic Integration, Industry Studies, Economic Geography

JEL Classification: F12, F13, F14, F15, L60, R12