DETERMINATION OF TURKEY'S EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT GROUPS: AN ANALYSIS OVER THE PERIOD 1996-2015

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the global competitiveness of Turkey's manufacturing industry products by using the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) method. The data set, SITC Rev.3, consists of export data for 157 groups of goods in 3 digit classification and the time interval covers 20 years from 1996 to 2015. In the analysis of the study, the Vollrath Index is used and the RCA coefficients are calculated for each product group. According to the results, Turkey has a competitive advantage in exports of 57 manufacturing industry groups, and a competitive disadvantage in the remaining 100 commodity groups. Of the 57 product groups in which Turkey has a competitive advantage, 19 are strong superiority, 18 are moderate superiority and 20 are weak superiority. However, there are significant decreases in the RCA coefficients as of the second period.