Towards A Green Economy: Evidence From Countries, Türkiye's Regions and Turkish Firms

Addressing the climate challenge is vital for the long-term sustainability of the World as a whole where transition to a sustainable and green economy is becoming an important goal. In transition to a sustainable economy, increasing the ability of countries to produce green products is crucial to cope with the climate crisis. In this context, various studies have been conducted in the literature to gauge the level of green product sophistication of countries. Recently, the novel green complexity index developed by Mealy and Teytelboym (2022) using economic complexity methodology has attracted attention in the related literature. This study relies on this new concept of green complexity by providing a holistic approach and employing global panel data as well as a regional and firm level perspective for Turkey's provinces and Turkish firms, respectively. Accordingly, this thesis is mainly constituted by three individual essays complementing each other. First, the relationship between the green complexity and carbon emissions is explored through a cross-country analysis. Secondly, the green complexity index is calculated for each 81 provinces in Turkey and their capabilities in producing green products is identified where the relationship between air pollution indicators of SO2 and PM10 and green sophistication level of these provinces is examined. Last but not least, firm level green complexity indices are computed for Turkish firms where the relationship between environmental expenditures and financial performance of firms is explored taking green complexity of firms into account as well as their technology intensity of exports.