Revealed Comparative Advantage and Competitiveness: Turkey Agriculture Sector

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the competitiveness of the agricultural sector of Turkey in the international arena. For this analysis, food and agriculture trade data belong to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in for the years 2000 to 2011 were used. The Revealed Comparative Advantage Index (RCA) was calculated for the 601 agricultural items for Turkey. If RCA greater 1, 1^th goods to the j_th country shows that it has a comparative advantage. On the condition that only selected 78 agricultural items were founded over one value for RCA. According to these RCA index values, agricultural items were divided into two groups. Although the first group’s RCA values had range between 0 and smaller than 1, the second group’s RCA values had greater and equal to 1. It means that the higher RCA values correspond to the more stronger competitiveness. Namely, the strength of the second group’s competitiveness was better than the first group.

Keywords

• Revealed Comparative Advantage Index, Competitiveness, Turkey

Açıklanmış Karşılaştırmalı Üstünlükler ve Rekabet: Türkiye Tarım Sektörü

Öz

Bu çalışmada, Türkiye tarım sektörünün rekabet gücünün uluslararası alanda belirlenmesi hedeflenmiştir. Bu analizde, 2000 ve 2011 yılları arasında Gıda ve Tarım Örgütü (FAO)’ne ait gıda ve tarım ticaret verisi kullanılmıştır. Açıklanmış Karşılaştırmalı Üstünlükler İndeksi (AKÜ), 601 adet tarımsal madde için hesaplanmıştır. Eğer AKÜ değeri, birden büyükse, ilgili malda o ülke rekabet avantajına sahiptir. Türkiye için, 78 adet tarımsal maddede AKÜ değerleri birden büyük bulunmuştur. AKÜ indeks değerlerine göre, tarımsal maddeler iki gruba ayrılmıştır. Birinci grubun AKÜ değerleri sıfır ve birden küçük değerlere sahip iken, ikinci grubun AKÜ değerleri bire eşit veya daha büyük değerlere sahiptir. Daha yüksek AKÜ değerleri, daha güçlü rekabet demektir. Yani ikinci grubun rekabet gücü, birinci grubun rekabet gücünden daha iyidir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Açıklanmış Karşılaştırmalı Üstünlükler İndeksi, Rekabet, Türkiye

References

1. Aktan C Vural İ (2004). Competitiveness and Turkey. TISK Competitive Series: 3. Ankara.
2. Altay O Gacaner A (2003). Turkey’s Dynamics of Competition: A Comparative Analysis of Competitiveness of the Textile and Clothing Industry. Paper presented at the VII.ERC/METU 2003 International Economy Congress. Ankara.
3. Balassa B (1965). Trade Liberalization and Revealed Comparative Advantage. Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies. 33: 99–124.
4. Balassa B (1977). Revealed Comparative Advantage Revisited: An Analysis of Relative Export Shares of the Industrial Countries, 1953-1971. The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, 45(4): 327-44.
5. Balassa B (1986). Comparative Advantage in Manufactured Goods: A Reappraisal. The Review of Economics and Statistics. 68(2):315-319.
6. Bender S Kui-Wai Li (2002). The Changing Trade and Revealed Comparative Advantages of Asian and Latin American Manufacture Exports. Yale University. Economic Growth Center Discussion Paper Series No. 843.
7. Bowen H (1983). On the Theoretical Interpretation of Trade Intensity and Revealed Comparative Advantage. Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv. 119: 464–472.
8. Çoban O Kök R (2005). The Turkish Textile Industry and its Competitiveness: A Comparative Analysis with the EU Countries during the period 1989-2001. Iktisat Isletme ve Finans Journal. 228: 68–

9. FAO (2014). Statistical Database . http://faostat.fao.org/site/535/default.aspx#ancor (Accessed to web: 18 April 2014).
10. Hillman A (1980). Observations on the Relation between Revealed Comparative Advantage and Comparative Advantage as Indicated by Pre-Trade Relative Prices. Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv. 116: 315–321.
11. Hinloopen J Marrewijk C (2004). Dynamics of Chinese Comparative Advantage. Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No: 2004-034/2.
12. Karakaya E Özgen F (2002). Economic Feasibility of Turkey's Economic Integration with the EU: Perspectives from Trade Creation and Trade Diversion. VI. ODTÜ Uluslararası Ekonomi Kongresi. Ankara.
13. Kojima K (1970). The Pattern of International Trade among Advanced Countries. Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics. 5: 16–36.
14. Mod (2014). Database. http://mod.gov.tr. (Accessed to web: 23 April 2014).
15. Richardson DJ Zhang C (1999). Revealing Comparative Advantage: Chaotic or Coherent Patterns Across Time and Sector and U.S Trading Partner. National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 7212.
16. Şahinli MA (2011). Revealed Comparative Advantage Index: An Application on Turkey Cotton Industry. The Journal of Social and Economic Research. 15(21): 237-250.
17. Şahinli MA (2013). Comparative advantage of agriculture sector between Turkey and European Union, African Journal of Agricultural Research. 8(10): 884-895.
18. Serin V Civan A (2008). Revealed Comparative Advantage on Competitiveness: A Case Study for Turkey towards EU, Journal of Economic and Social Research, 10(2): 25-41.
19. Turkstat (2014). Database. http://turkstat.gov.tr. (Accessed to web:22.04.2014).
20. Utkulu U Seymen D (2004). Revealed Comparative Advantage and Competitiveness: Evidence for Turkeyvis-a-vis the EU 15, European Trade Study Group 6th Annual Conference, Nothingam. Weiss J (2004). People’s Republic of China and its Neighbors: Partners or Competitors for Trade and Investment? Asian Development Bank Institute, Discussion Paper No. 13.
21. Yılmaz B (2003). Turkey’s Competitiveness in the European Union: A Comparison with Five Candidate Countries and the EU. Ezoneplus Working Paper No: 12.
22. Yue C (2001). Comparative Advantage, Exchange Rate and Exports in China. Paper prepared for the international conference on Chinese economy. CERDI. France.