Infrastructure and the international export performance of Turkish regions

We estimate the Anderson and van Wincoop model of trade by using the
data on the bilateral export flows from 26 Turkish regions to 180
countries for the years 2002 through to 2010. Regional transportation
and communication infrastructure capacity, the positioning of point
infrastructure in a region, and geography are explicitly accounted for.
Our results highlight that land infrastructure, air transport capacity,
and private maritime infrastructure presence, together with the distance
of regional economies to exit nodes such as ports and airports, are
important determinants of export performance. Based on our preferred
regression where multilateral resistance terms are accounted for, we
estimate that increases in the current land infrastructure, air
transport capacity, and number of private ports of 1 per cent increases
exports approximately by 0.38 per cent, 0.14 per cent, and 0.045 per
cent respectively.

Keywords: Infrastructure; trade; regions; transportation costs