Economic Development in Turkey and South Korea: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

An interesting question in comparative economic development is why Turkey fell behind South Korea even though she had better development prospects in 1960. The existing literature offers some illuminating narratives of the most plausible reasons, but only a few papers have identified the microeconomic foundations of the relative underperformance of the Turkish economy. This paper constructs and analyzes two-sector catching up models to find contrasts between Turkey and South Korea. The results, which follow from data-based calibrations, indicate the following: with respect to initial conditions and values of structural parameters, both economies have advantages and disadvantages. The most significant contrast, however, is the huge difference in how efficiently the two countries adopt frontier technologies. While the South Korean economy operates with an efficiency level very close to its upper bound of 100%, Turkey is located at the other end of the spectrum with an efficiency level of less than 1%. Counterfactual experiments confirm the dominant role of this efficiency parameter against initial conditions and other structural parameters. An extended analysis indicates that human capital differences can only partially explain the large difference in efficiency levels.

Demografi̇k Firsat Penceresi̇ni̇n Güney Kore Ve Japonya’ya Yansimalari Üzeri̇ne Bi̇r

“…Güney Kore'de seçkin ailelerin sahip olduğu şaboller (Chaebols), stratejik ticaret politikasının önemli bir tamamlayıcısı olmanın dışında, 1960'lardan sonraki en önemli kalkınma faktörüdür. Nitekim 1961'de devletleştirilen ticari bankalardan cömert finansal destekler alan ve stratejik ticaret politikasından yararlanan bu şirketler, (ciddi bir kamu denetiminin de etkisiyle) ihracatta hızlı büyüme göstermişlerdir (Attar, 2018). Dahası, geniş iş sektörünün tamamına yakınının bir şabol ağının parçası olduğu söylenebilir ki (Karacadağ Kalkınma Ajansı, 2012); 1982'de en büyük on şabolün ülke toplam ihracatındaki payı %58 civarındadır (Koo, 1984akt.…”