Exporting and productivity: evidence from Turkish automotive sector

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the determinants of export performance of the Turkish auto-motive manufacturers by focusing on firm-level productivity changes. We use the dataset obtained from Automotive Manufacturers Association (OSD) for the time period 2001-2019, and we have a panel data of 18 firms that produce motor vehi-cles. We calculate the productivity changes of the firms by applying Malmquist Productivity Change Index, which is commonly used in the literature. Analyz-ing two di˙erent dependent variables, export amounts and the share of exports in production, we find that increase in firm-level productivity leads to higher amounts of exports. Moreover, the impact of productivity on share of exports is relatively weaker for the Turkish automotive manufacturers.