The importance of the railway freight transport in Turkey's economy: Analysis with econometric model

In this thesis, the causality relationship between Turkish rail freight transport and economic growth was examined using data from 1984 to 2017. In this study, unlike similar researches in the literature, connection between Turkey's economic growth and rail transport through time series were discussed from a macroeconomic point of view and econometric analyses were used. Transportation, which is one of the most important sub-topics in the logistics sector, has played an important role in national and international trade. It is observed that railway transportation, of the selected types of transportation, has made significant contributions in social, industrial and economic development in the historical process with its use. The contribution of rail transport to Turkey's economic growth targets has been tried to be examined. The introduction of railway transportation in the world, the development of railway transportation in the Ottoman Empire and the historical development of railway transportation in Turkey since the proclamation of the republic, have been explained. The annual data used in the study were obtained from websites of the General Directorate of The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), General Directorate of State Railways of the Republic of Turkey (TCDD) and The World Bank (Word Bank-WB). EViews9 software is used for econometric analysis. As a result of the econometric analyses conducted in the study, there was no long-term equilibrium relationship between economic growth and rail freight transport. In the short term, it was determined that there was a causality relationship from rail freight transport to economic growth.