Appraising the integration of sustainable development into sectoral policies: The case of Turkish Science & Technology policies

This paper presents the results of a study investigating how sustainable development can be integrated in Turkish science and technology policies. It contributes to the elaboration of the national sustainable development strategy and to the implementation of the EU acquis. The project’s originality for Turkey lies in its methodology (a participatory approach), and in its topic since sustainable development integration has never been dealt with in Turkey. Suggestions to improve this integration include strengthening the links between S&T institutions by entrusting the State Planning Organisation with the sustainable development integration mission, and raising awareness about its win-win advantages.Science and technology policy, Sustainable development integration, Participatory public policy, Environment, Turkey

Analyzing R&D Activities of Foreign Enterprises in Emerging Economies. Lessons from Turkey

Emerging economies have played an important role in the internationalization of R&D activities at least since the 1990s. Turkey, an emerging economy and at same time an accession country to the European Union which signed a Customs Union Agreement with the EU already in 1995, is no exception. In-depth face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with R&D directors of 26 multinational companies operating in Turkey –with headquarters located in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerlandand USA- in the informatics, automotive, electronics and pharmaceutical industries. Data and qualitative information obtained through these interviews are then used to analyze those factors theory points to as being major determinants of foreign R&D in emerging economies. The emphasis is on the (i) motivations of foreign enterprises for launching new R&D activities or extending existing ones (ii) restrictions of different kind they encounter in doing so (iii) their reactions with respect to FDI promotion policies and public R&D support incentives implemented by Turkish policy makers, and (iv) advantages/disadvantages of Turkish economy as an R&D location in comparison with other emerging economies. A number of policy recommendations for attracting more foreign R&D in Turkey and integrating them with the Turkish national innovation system are advanced.Research and development (R&D), internationalization of R&D, R&D offshoring, multinational companies, national innovation systems, case studies, semi-structured interviews

A Panel Data Approach for Income-Health Causality

This study provides evidence on income-health causality by employing a large micro panel data set with a VAR representation. The findings verify that dominant type of causality is bidirectional which cast doubt on the performance OLS estimates in the literature. Moreover, one-way causality pattern is not similar for different income groups. One-way causality generally runs from income to health in low- and middle-income countries whereas the reverse holds for high-income countries.Income, Health, Granger Causality

Technological Change and ICTs in OECD Countries

The motivation of the study is to form a ground for further research on the issue of the effect of electronic commerce on economic variables that has been supported by empirical models. In this respect, a considerable part of the study is devoted to the discussion of the building significant relationship between technology, electronic commerce and the fundamentals of the real economy. As a result of both the conceptual part and the analytical part, two important conclusions were drawn. The first one is that technological change is increasingly gaining special emphasis especially with the rising arguments on the issue of "New Economy". The second important point is that technological change and electronic commerce are in relation with the most important variables of the real economy like gross domestic product, investment, trade balance and also R&D expenditures.Technological Change, ICTs, E-commerce, employment, macroeconomics, OECD

Time Use in Rural Areas: A Case Study in Turkey

This study aims to analyze rural household work and leisure time and how it is allocated among various activities and by socio-economic characteristics of individuals. The analysis is based on a survey carried out in two central Anatolian villages. Three time use questionnaires are administered between May-October 2003 during two different days of the week, an ordinary weekday and the day of the local bazaar. 138 household members from these two villages have participated in the survey. It is found that on the average, the villagers spend over half of their nonsleeping time on non-economic activities including personal development. The remaining time spent on agricultural and non-agricultural economic activities is about the same. Males on the average spend more time on all activities than females except for personal development. The results show that, time use patterns change during different days of the week and months of the year. It is also found that, there is a high correlation between time use patterns and socio-economic characteristics of the households. In general there are statistically significant differences in the average time devoted to activities by education and age groups. Finally, significant differences are observed in the time use patterns rather than magnitudes by gender. As expected, differentiation in men’s and women’s roles is observed in agricultural activities.Time Use surveys, rural households, agricultural activities

Does Information and Communication Technology Sustain Economic Growth? The Underdeveloped and Developing Countries Case

This paper tests the impact of ICT on economic growth for underdeveloped and developing countries by using a panel dataset for the period of 1995-2006. We first develop the theory of the relationship between ICT and economic growth. We show that ICT-capital has a positive effect both on long-run and transitional income per capita, if it is considered as a factor of production. Next, we estimate a panel data set with 131 underdeveloped and developing countries under the assumption that ICT is one of the determining factors of economic growth. We find that ICT has positive and significant effect on economic growth even after the use of some control variables.ICT, economic growth, panel data, GMM

The Determining Role of EU in Turkey's Trade Flows: A Gravity Model Approach

This paper aims to determine the role of EU in Turkey’s trade flows by using the gravity model. It also aims to test whether the Customs Union (of EU) that Turkey entered in 1996 made a deviation in Turkey’s trade flows. Regional trade agreements on the one hand create new trade opportunities (trade creation effect). On the other hand, these agreements may also lead to diversion from free trade (trade diversion effect). Turkey’s Customs Union agreement without becoming a member of EU provides a laboratory to researchers to test whether the agreement was significant enough to cause any deviation in Turkey’s trade flow. In the first part of the study, we shortly provide some descriptive statistics related to Turkey’s trade flows with EU to see whether EU has gained any weight in the flows. In the second part, we first develop a gravity model that econometrically designates the determinants of Turkey’s trade flows via panel data approach. Next, we use this equation to test the importance of EU countries in Turkey’s trade flow and whether the flow has been subject to a deviation after the Customs Union agreement. Our findings indicate that EU countries have always been important in Turkey’s trade flow and that Customs Union has increased EU’s importance marginally in determining Turkey’s trade flow.Gravity model, Turkey, EU, Panel Data, Customs Union

Individual and Organizational Aspects of University-Industry Relations in Nanotechnology: The Turkish Case

Emerging nanotechnologies bring a new challenge for developing countries to improve knowledge and technology transfer between universities and firms. In developing countries, weaker ties between academia and the industry seem to be one of the main barriers to the dissemination of nanotechnology innovations. This study aims to understand individual and organizational factors affecting university-industry interactions in emerging nanotechnologies in a developing country context, namely Turkey. For this study, 181 questionnaires were collected from a sample of nano-science and nanotechnology academics who are currently employed by Turkish universities. The results provide that informal / interpersonal and research-related interactions are the most common forms of relationship between academics and firms. On the other hand, the study provides a useful insight to understand how human and social capitals of university-scientists as well as organizational resources/ capabilities influence the formation of links between universities and the industry.Nanotechnology, nanoscience, emerging technologies, technology transfer, university-industry relations, science and technology policies, probit model, disproportionate stratified sampling, emerging economies, Turkey.

Physical and human capital complementarity and worker effort level by nutritional level within labor-augmenting Solow type model

Whether the convergence occurs is one of the important issues in economic growth. Besides occurrence of convergence, another important issue in the theory of economic growth is whether the growth of per-capita income depends on the ratio of physical to human capital (K/H) where human capital is defined by the education and the worker effort level calculated by per capita dietary energy supply (DES). This study provides evidence for imbalance effects of (K/H) on growth rate besides convergence issue in a sample of 36 countries. This dependence causes the change in size of convergence rate where with the conditions on (K/H) ratio, convergence rate increases.peer-reviewe