Share of knowledge economy in economic growth in Turkey: Bayer-Hanck cointegration and ARDL bounds test approach

The knowledge economy is an economic system that increases the efficiency and welfare of economic and social life by using information as a production input, and can constantly renew itself in line with the demands of the era it is in. In the 21st century, where information is used as a production input. It is inevitable for states that hold information and technology to dominate economic power in the future. In the process of transition to the information society, large economies are also trying to become a knowledge-based economy by changing their economic systems over time. In this study, Turkey's per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was used as the dependent variable, and high technology exports, the number of graduate and doctorate students in higher education, and R&D manpower in higher education were used as independent variables. According to the results of the study, the existence of a long-term equilibrium relationship between the variables was determined according to the ARDL bounds test and the Bayer-Hanck combined cointegration test. According to the long-term estimation results, all variables except the number of students were found to be statistically significant. In the long run, high technology exports affect economic growth negatively and R&D manpower positively. According to the ARDL long-term estimation result, among other estimations, all variables were found to be statistically significant. R&D manpower and the number of students affect economic growth positively, and high technology exports negatively. In addition, a one-way Granger causality relationship was found from R&D workforce, number of students and technological export variables to economic growth.