Analysis of structural transformation of Turkey's foreign trade with Industry 4.0 and intra-industry trade perspective

This thesis aims to evaluate the competitiveness of Turkey's manufacturing industry in international markets in the context of Industry 4.0 and the impact of that in Turkey's foreign trade. A large part of Turkey's exports consist of intermediate goods sold in regional and global production chains and automotive, textile, electronics, iron and steel and furniture sectors are also prominent in exports on sector basis. In the study, the potential transformation of Turkey's foreign trade to Industry 4.0 was analyzed in the context of intra-industry trade theory. As a result of the analysis findings; as Turkey's openness increases in favor of imports, the increase in the openness level has a negative impact on intra-industry trade. The development of intra-industry trade promotes the industry 4.0 transformation of the Turkish manufacturing industry. Turkey's foreign trade structure, tends to tilt to manufacturing industry and medium high-tech goods In 1978-2001 period, a downward trend was observed in the technology deficit. The effect of Turkey's technological deficit on export/import coverage ratio is positive at %5 level of significance in 1978-2001 period and negative at %10 level of significance in 2002-2019 period. It is also concluded that there is a negative and statistically meaningful relationship between medium high technology intra-industry trade and foreign trade of manufacturing industry.