The relationship between freight transportation and foreign trade in the maritime industry: The case of Turkey

The aim of this thesis is to explain the effect of freight transportation on foreign trade in the maritime sector in case of Turkey. For this purpose 2013-2023 data which obtained from Turkish Statistical Institute and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure's websites were used. Time series method was choosed as the econometric method. Economic growth is represented by the Industrial Production Index. This study involves five variables and they were used in logarithmic form (Export, Import, Volume, Handling and Index). In order to analyse the stationarity of the series, unit root tests are used. Regression analysis is handled using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method to determine the short-term sign of the relationship between the variables. It was seen that the Toda-Yamamoto causality test and the results from OLS support each other. In the maritime sector, freight transportation by sea has an impact on foreign trade. This effect is observed to be positive in the short term. Keywords: Maritime Sector, Freight Transportation, VAR Model, Time Series