Has European customs union agreement really affected Turkey's trade?
Author
Neyaptı, B.
Taşkın, F.
Üngör, M.
Date
2007Source Title
Applied Economics
Print ISSN
0003-6846
Electronic ISSN
1466-4283
Publisher
Routledge
Volume
39
Issue
16
Pages
2121 - 2132
Language
English
Type
ArticleItem Usage Stats
153
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196
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Abstract
The numerous discussions regarding the advantages and disadvantages of Turkey's becoming a member of the Customs Union has been inconclusive. The empirical analysis that mostly focus on the changes in the volume of trade without much regard to the conjectural changes have also been insufficient. This study attempts to shed light on this issue in a formal analysis of Turkey's international trade by empirically accounting for the changes before and after the Customs Union Agreement (CUA). In doing so, we explicitly account for the concurrent changes in the macroeconomic environment that may have affected Turkey's trade with the rest of the world. Our empirical findings indicate that CUA has not only positively impacted on Turkey's trade, but also led to changes in the behaviour of both exports and imports with regards to their responsiveness to underlying variables.