Analysis of Turkey's exports to the EU in manufacturing industry sector according to technology intensity: Panel data method

The rapid change in the world economy has made the competition at the international level more intense. This situation has led both sectors and countries to analyse their competitiveness and to engage in more efforts to develop new strategies to be successful in the international market. The main objective of this study is to identify the factors affecting the competitiveness of countries, to determine the impact levels of these factors and to reveal the requirements of an effective competition policy to increase the effects of competition in favour of the country. In this context, this thesis focuses on the factors affecting Turkey's sectoral export share and the export competitiveness structure of the sub-sectors of the manufacturing industry; a sectoral market share analysis based on the competitiveness indicators of the sectors has been conducted. For this purpose, Turkey's level of international competitiveness is analysed at the sectoral level through Turkey's share in the European Union (EU) market, which is Turkey's most important foreign trade partner and covers a significant share of its trade. Turkey's manufacturing industry sector is grouped according to the current international technology classification and the determinants of the export performance of the sectors in each group are determined using panel data analysis for the period 2007Q1-2021Q4 through three models. In these three models, where the market shares of 23 sub-sectors are determined as the dependent variable, cost-efficiency, supply and counter country demand are grouped as important determinants of market share and included in the study. The findings of the study imply that the determinants of sectoral competitiveness differ across sectors and also that the competitiveness of the sectors, especially in the low-tech group, is based on price competitiveness, so it is important to maintain the price-cost advantage.