Structural adjustment and trade in Turkey: Investigating the alternatives "beyond export-led growth"

Abstract

The article searches for a viable alternative for Turkey's economy to resolve its current confrontation with the dilemma of stabilization and growth. With the aid of a dynamic, computable, general equilibrium model, it is argued that an integrated, industrialization strategy that combines a domestic-demand-based, wage-goods-oriented public investment program with a selective export-promotion scheme promises to be the most appropriate one serving Turkey's long-term industrialization interests. The model results further emphasize the pressing need for the revitalization of the domestic demand and the importance of the agricultural productivity growth in promoting Turkey's overall objectives of industrialization, income equity, and foreign trade over the Fifth and Sixth Plan periods. © 1989.