Learning curves: Theory and an empirical study on estimating sectoral learning curves

Learning by doing in the production process brings cost and efficiency advantages to businesses. The effect of learning by doing, which provides a sustainable competitive advantage, on cost and productivity is evaluated through learning rates. From this point of view, the economic development differences of the countries examined in this study are tried to be examined from a new perspective in terms of the learning levels of the sectors. For this purpose, a comparative analysis of learning in agriculture, industry and services sector was made in the sample of EU-27 countries, United Kingdom, and Turkey for the period 2004-2020. In the study, the effect of the cumulative production and the amount of labor on the unit labor cost was investigated in the model obtained as a result of combining the Cobb-Douglas production function and the learning curve function. During the research process, learning rates for each country and sector were calculated by inserting the learning flexibility coefficients estimated through panel data analysis into the learning rate formulation. As a result of the study, it has been determined that the countries with the lowest learning rate (highest learning) are France, Italy and Bulgaria, while the countries with the highest learning rate (lowest learning) are Czechia, United Kingdom and Greece for the agricultural sector. The countries with the lowest learning rate (highest learning) are Germany, Bulgaria, and Austria while the countries with the highest learning rates (lowest learning) were Spain, Greece, and the United Kingdom for the industrial sector. The countries with the lowest learning rates (highest learning) are Spain, France, and the Netherlands while the countries with the highest learning rates (lowest learning) are Germany, Slovenia, and Latvia for the services sector. Turkey's learning rates in agriculture, industry and services sectors are calculated to be higher than the average learning rates in each sector of EU countries. This result shows that the level of learning for three sectors in Turkey is lower than level of learning for these sectors in EU countries. In order to achieve more successful results in the learning-economic performance interaction, it is recommended to develop education programs within the scope of education systems, and to increase R&D and innovation investments by giving more importance to education, science and technology in Turkey.