erc/metu
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN ECONOMICS  IV
September 13-16, 2000, Ankara

Local Firm Relations and Growth: A Case Study for Çorum, 1993-1996

Cihan Aktaş (Rekabet Kurumu)
Ömer Faruk Baykal (Bilkent University)

Abstract  

There has been a growing interest toward growth recently both at micro and macro level. The macro-specific part involves the vast growth differences among countries and change in the growth pattern of a country over time. The micro-specific part scrutinises the growth differences among firm level and tries to figure out what kind of factors, whether quantitative or qualitative, enable them to develop both in domestic and world markets.Cooperation among firms can be performed in many channels such as subcontracting, lending tools or machinery, product development, marketing, lending skilled-man power, and purchase of inputs. In this paper we are going to search for the qualitative or the so-called 'cooperation variables' that led for the firms in the district of Corum/Turkey to develop more rapidly in the last ten years among its other counterparts in the region of Anatolia. We are especially interested in coming up with a policy of recommendations in terms of firm relations for other firms in the region that are on their way of developing. The estimation been used is unequally spaced panel data estimation with AR(1) disturbances due to Badi Baltagi. The advantage of this technique over the other panel data estimation techniques is that it allows for missing data which is generally the case and the structure of the error term being AR(1), this leads a technology shock to die out over time which macroeconomic modellers are willing to have. We find some evidence that some channels of cooperation could do good for firms' activities. Among them are lending machinery, training of workers, lending skilled-man power. Also, we try to examine the difference between cooperational and collusive behaviours through the antitrust policy. These activities could also be conducive in other firms in the region of Anatolia provided that they have the same market structure, saturation level, and economies of scale.

Economic Research Center
Middle East Technical University
06531 Ankara Turkey
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e-mail: metuerc@metu.edu.tr