Industrial Clusters as a Regional Development Tool: A Spatial Analysis on Turkey (original) (raw)

The aim of this study is to explore the clustering behaviour of Turkish regions from the point of manufacturing industry. For this purpose, firstly, industrial clusters will be examined as a regional policy tool in regional development. After all, Japan, Israel, Scotland and Italy's cluster initiatives will be shortly explained to highlight the importance of clusters in regional economy. Lastly, cluster initiatives in Turkey will be examined from the regional aspect and an econometric estimation will be made to detect the clustering behivour of Turkish regions. A spatial econometric analysis will be applied for a panel data including 26 NUTS2 regions of Turkey for the period of 1991 – 2000. According to emprical analysis results applied to a standart Cobb – Douglas Production Function, manufacturing industry of Turkey's NUTS2 regions show clustering behaviour. According to these estimation results policy implications for Turkey will be made.