The investigation of internationalcompetitiveness of Turkish natural stone industry

The fact that world trade volume has increased, that communication channels have become active, that logistic opportunities have developed and that production volume which has ascended with industrial revolutions have brought up competition conditions among the countries to a formidable level. Although the institutions that were established after World War II, such as World Trade Organization, have been working for the liberalization of international trade, the countries tend to increase their export and limit their import with the policies they employ to gain competitive power from the macro viewpoint. In order to prosper in international trade and increase their market shares, the countries make various policy decisions and apply those decisions in public or private sector. There are many parameters that affect macro competitive power. Some international institutions publish competitive power from macro viewpoint together with calculation details. From micro viewpoint, on the other hand, it is possible to explain competitive power of the businesses or industries with more tangible data. Though there are many indexes developed from micro competitive power viewpoint, "Revealed Comparative Advantage" index published by Balassa and developed thereafter by Vollrath and its derivatives are the most effective indexes that are able to explain competitive power particularly at industrial level. The present study aims to throw a light on which kinds of natural stones our country has advantages and disadvantages by considering the fact that the abovementioned indexes have been used in natural stone industry between 2009-2018. Additionally, natural stone group has been interpreted based on raw material and product and the effects of added value on macro competitive advantage even in labor intensive industries have been investigated. Our country has a high competitive power as raw material and product in natural stone groups in which she has raw material advantage.