Analysis of sectoral shift and change at the Turkey's provincial level; 2010-2016

Abstract

The regional economic development scholars have been working for many years on why certain activities are agglomerated in certain regions. Within the economic change, the role and the position of the regions are also changing and transforming, and with the accumulation of capital and agglomeration of activities, the boundaries of the region are evolving from local to larger units such as urban regions and mega regions. This transition process to larger regional can be evaluated by associating the geographical and sectoral dimensions of agglomeration economies. In this context, the motivation of the article is to understand economic sectoral change and to discuss the geographical dimension of regional and sectoral agglomeration at the Turkey's provincial level. Main research questions in the article are 1) in which regions are the sectors agglomerating in Turkey, and what is the geographical and sectoral pattern of this agglomeration at provincial level (NUTS3)?; and 2) in which direction did the sectoral shift and change took place from 2010 to 2016 in leading regions that have achieved economic success in multiple sectors? In accordance with the research questions the sectoral shift and change between 2010-2016 has been evaluated with the shift-share analysis at the provincial level. In the analyses, the number of entrepreneurs and turnover values according to the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE Rev.2) are used. The research findings are presented via geographical and sectoral Turkey maps, and inequalities of sectoral agglomeration are discussed. The sectoral and geographical transformation maps obtained are also capable of guiding the development of regenerating economic development policies.

Keywords

• sectoral concentration
• sectoral shift
• inequalities
• regional economic development