Effectiveness of energy policy in Turkey

In this study, we investigated whether energy policy is effective in Turkey considering the fact that these policies have important contributions to economic development, growth, climate and environmental struggles. One of the most important reasons for choosing energy efficiency to represent policy effectiveness is that this variable serves all the purposes of energy policies. In Turkey energy efficiency improvement efforts are affected by foreign direct investment, industrial added value, the environmental tax, the trade openness and real GDP depending on the economic activities. The most important quantitative representative of efficiency is primary energy density. In this thesis study, which aimed to assess the effectiveness of energy policies in Turkey; using annual data for the period 1994-2019 the effects of foreign direct investments, industrial value added, environmental taxes, trade openness and real GDP on energy intensity were analyzed with the ARDL Boundary Test. It has been observed that there are similarities between the results obtained in this study and the results of previous studies in the literature. As a conclusion, according to the results of short and long term ARDL estimation and hypothesis tests it is observed that foreign direct investments have no effect on energy intensity whereas industrial value added, environmental taxes and commercial openness increase energy intensity and thus reduce energy efficiency and it is concluded that real GDP decreases energy intensity and thus increases efficiency. Econometric methods discussed here verifies that energy policy in Turkey is not effective. According to econometric analysis and models, it seems that the efficiency of energy policies in Turkey is not effective. Recent Investments in nuclear santrals in Turkey creates a potential hop for Turkey in terms of energy efficiency in the future.