Converenge in BRICS and Turkey: An emprical analysis in terms of macroeconomic performance indicators

The BRICS countries and Turkey have made remarkable progress in the world economy with their economic development in recent years. Whether the economic success shown by this group of countries is a real economic success or not is one of the issues that are very important. The convergence hypothesis, which is accepted as a method of macroeconomic evaluation in the literature, is stated to give accurate economic evaluation and results in the context of the economies of the country and region. The aim of this study is to determine whether the economic development demonstrated by BRICS-T countries is a real success by comparing them with high income reference countries. In this context, the convergence hypothesis was tested in terms of the macroeconomic performance criteria of the "magical diamond" (economic growth, unemployment, inflation and external balance) developed by the OECD. Data on these indicators for the BRICS-T countries in the period 1992-2018 were obtained from World Bank and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development statistics. The data obtained were analyzed with CADF and PANKPSS unit root tests by testing the horizontal cross section dependencies of the data within the scope of Panel data analysis method. The results of the CADF test showed that BRICS-T countries diverged from high income countries in terms of growth and external balance indicators, while inflation and unemployment converged across the panel. The results of the PANKPSS test, which allows for stasis testing in the presence of multiple structural fractures, showed that convergence occurred in terms of all the indicators in question.