USING CLUSTER ANALYSIS TO DEFINE THE POSITION OF A DEVELOPING COUNTRY IN GLOBAL TRANSPORTATION SERVICES TRADE ENVIRONMENT

Year 2016, Volume: 29 Issue: 4, 751 - 767, 19.12.2016

Ebru Vesile Öcalır Akünal , Serpil Erol

Abstract

Liberalization of services brought a competitive environment where governments on the one hand try to get access to the markets of the most competitive sectors for them, and on the other hand they try to protect their local suppliers against sector’s global giants. Although several developing countries have participated in the globalization of services, still some developing countries show resistance to process of liberalization in services, as they do not see themselves as possessing much of comparative advantage in the production and exchange of services. In recent years, publication of statistical data on services trade, has allowed researchers make international comparisons in macro level. In this study, Turkey’s position in global services trade environment is explored in the case of transport sector. The place of Turkey among 148 member countries of World Trade Organization is evaluated by cluster analysis with respect to transportation services trade indicators.

The results show that current position of Turkey in global services trade market is far from being competitive. The recruitments necessary for Turkey to gain its competitiveness are proved by scenario analyses.

Keywords

Liberalization of services, GATS; transport sector; cluster analysis; Turkey

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