Abstract
Regional inequalities continue to be a major barrier preventing economic growth and development, especially for developing countries. Governments’ efforts to use public investment incentives in eliminating regional inequalities are among the most frequently implemented policies. From this point of view, this paper examines the impact of regional public investment incentives on regional economic growth in 26 development regions of Turkey over the 2004-2018 period using panel data analysis. The results of this study prove that total regional investment incentives have a positive impact on the economic growth of the regions in Turkey. The results also indicate that the investment incentives for the agricultural sector positively affect the agricultural sector, and investment incentives for the industrial sector affect the industrial sector positively, and the investment incentives for the services sector positively affect the services sector in Turkey. On the other hand, it has been statistically proved that the effect of investment incentives for the agricultural sector, which has the lowest share in investment incentives, is more effective than other types of incentives. Therefore, one of the most important results of this study is that agricultural investment incentives are among the main dynamics of agricultural development in Turkey, and that it is the most effective incentive type among investment incentives.