Fuzzy gravity approach for determinants of exports

Purpose: The present study proposes the fuzzy gravity model approach to examine the main factors that affect the export volume of Turkey and whether the European Union Customs Union (EUCU) membership affected the export of it. Design/Methodology/Approach: A fuzzy approach was developed for the gravity model by using these variables. The dependent variable was the export volume of Turkey to 204 countries throughout the whole world, and the explanatory variables were the gross domestic product (GDP) of the countries that are subject to export and their distances to Turkey (dij), populations, whether the seaway transport was possible, and the membership to the EUCU. The last two items were added as dummy variables in the model. Findings: The results showed that gross domestic product (GDP) of the country which Turkey exports to, its being a member of the EUCU, and its population affected the export volume of Turkey positively. However, the distance of the target country to Turkey had a negative effect. The coefficient of distance variable was found to be negative fuzzy and ones of the seaway was fully fuzzy. However, when seaway variable was taken together with distance, it was positive fuzzy, which showed the positive effect of the opportunity of transportation by sea in long distances on export volume. Practical Implications: It is thought that the policies to be established based on these findings will be beneficial in improving the country's exports. Other available fuzzy regression approaches may be tried in future studies to obtain a fuzzy model. In addition, the import or foreign trade structure of Turkey may be dealt with the same approach. Originality/Value: In this study the fuzzy gravity model approach was used as a novelty, which was different from the methods in the literature, because the gravity model is criticized sometimes that its theoretical basis is weak and the relations between dependent variables and explanatory variables are not adequately clear.peer-reviewe

Democracy and Economic Development: a Fuzzy Classification Approach

The aim of this work is to (1) analyse whether countries differ on political indicators (democracy, rule of law, government effectiveness and corruption) and (2) study whether countries with different political profiles are associated with different levels of economic, human development and gender-related development indicators. Using a fuzzy classification approach (fuzzy k-means algorithm), we propose a typology of 124 countries based on 10 political variables. Six segments are identified; these political groups implicate the access to different levels of economic and human development. In this study evidence of a positive but not perfect relationship between democracy and economic and human development is observed, thus presenting new insights for the understanding of the heterogeneity of behaviors relatively to political indicators.Democracy, Economic Development, Fuzzy k-means

Forecasting and Forecast Combination in Airline Revenue Management Applications

Predicting a variable for a future point in time helps planning for unknown future situations and is common practice in many areas such as economics, finance, manufacturing, weather and natural sciences. This paper investigates and compares approaches to forecasting and forecast combination that can be applied to service industry in general and to airline industry in particular. Furthermore, possibilities to include additionally available data like passenger-based information are discussed

Contextualized property market models vs. Generalized mass appraisals: An innovative approach

The present research takes into account the current and widespread need for rational valuation methodologies, able to correctly interpret the available market data. An innovative automated valuation model has been simultaneously implemented to three Italian study samples, each one constituted by two-hundred residential units sold in the years 2016-2017. The ability to generate a "unique" functional form for the three different territorial contexts considered, in which the relationships between the influencing factors and the selling prices are specified by different multiplicative coefficients that appropriately represent the market phenomena of each case study analyzed, is the main contribution of the proposed methodology. The method can provide support for private operators in the assessment of the territorial investment conveniences and for the public entities in the decisional phases regarding future tax and urban planning policies