A Firm-Level Analysis of Export Performance in Turkish Automotive Manufacturing Industry
European Trade Study Group Conference, Athens, Greece, 12 - 14 September 2024, pp.1-20, (Summary Text)
- Publication Type: Conference Paper / Summary Text
- City: Athens
- Country: Greece
- Page Numbers: pp.1-20
- Istanbul University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
This study aims to investigate the factors influencing
the export performance of key industry firms and supplier firms within the
Turkish automotive manufacturing sector in a comparative fashion. Using
firm-level micro data sets from the Turkish Statistical
Institute's (TURKSTAT) manufacturing census spanning from 2009 to 2020,
this paper aims to investigate how
firm-level characteristics; technological capacity, labor costs, government
R&D incentive share, total labor productivity together with the real
effective exchange rate contribute to differences in firm export growth in the
Turkish automotive manufacturing industry.
Traditionally, when assessing export performance,
researchers often consider broad macroeconomic variables like country size, distance,
real exchange rate, tariffs, and wage levels. Nevertheless, there is an
increasing necessity to pinpoint the specific factors at the firm level,
especially within certain manufacturing sectors and their small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which notably influence the export performance
of a country as a whole. In recent years, numerous studies have contributed to
understanding firm-level export performance and the key influencing factors for
a variety of countries and industries.
Within this range of industries, the automotive industry is frequently
seen as the fundamental pillar of an economy by triggering knowledge
spillovers, capital accumulation and industrial growth in numerous developing
countries. Hence, our analytical framework aligns with the latest developments
in the new trade theory and international business literature, which emphasizes
the role of firm heterogeneity and the significance of firm productivity
in accessing export markets.
The results
of the unbalanced panel data analysis yielded numerous findings. First of all, unlike
the key industry, R&D expenditures have a positive effect on export
performance in only supplier industry; total labor productivity, value-added
share, total labor compensation, real effective exchange rate, trade openness,
and trade balance have a positive effect on export performance in key and
supplier industries, although their impacts are higher in key industry; the
share of public subsidies in internal R&D expenditures has positive effect
on export performance in key industry and negative effect on it in supplier
industry; import penetration has positive effect on export performance in
supplier industry, and it is statistically insignificant in key industry; per
capita labor cost is insignificant in both of the industries.