Analysis of Turkey’s Regional Technological Trajectory: Effects of Relatedness Density and Knowledge Complexity on Technological Specialization

rtment ofEconomics (English)Economics(English) Program&nbsp;Smart specialization strategies havebecome a major framework for the European Union (EU) after the 2008 financialcrisis to support innovation and sustainable growth. Although smart specializationis an effectively used policy in the EU, little is known about its validity forTurkey. This thesis empirically investigates the impact of smart specializationvariables (relatedness and complexity) on technological change (entry and exitof technologies to and from regions) for Turkey’s regions at NUTS-3 level overthe period of 1978-2017 using patent data from OECD-REGPAT database.Using logistic regression and linear probabilitymodel, the thesis discovers the patterns of technological specialization inTurkey and provides policy makers with a policy perspective in line with thesmart specialization framework. GDP per capita, population, number ofuniversities, and number of techno parks of regions are included as controlvariables.The results show that the coefficientsof relatedness density, population, and per capita GDP variables are positiveand significant in the entry model in which the emergence of new technologiesin the regions is examined. In the exit model, where the abandonment oftechnologies is examined, the coefficients of the knowledge complexity andtechno park variables are negative and significant. The results show that the patterns of technologicalchange in Turkey differ based on the existing knowledge and capabilities of the regions,which is in line with the assumptions of smart specialization. Thus, it issuggested that innovation policies would yield better results when designedbased on unique characteristics of regions and region-specific objectives. &nbsp;Keywords: SmartSpecialization, Technological Change, Relatedness Density, KnowledgeComplexity.</p