Regional development discourses and theories have significantly changed since the born of
regional science. Focus of regional development theories has shifted from industrialization
efforts via large-scale enterprises and transfer of central government funds to disadvantaged
regions to endogenous capabilities and potentials of innovation and knowledge creation.
Endogenous factors and self-development capabilities are highly emphasized by recent
development literature. Changes in the regional development discourses also affected
regional policies, policy tools and actors / endogenous factors and self-development
discourses became dominant in regional development policies and implementations.
However, source of regional development for less developed regions that do not have
endogenous potentials and self-development capability have not clearly defined and have
not empirically tested.
The thesis attempted to empirically define regional growth factors and the usefulness of
theoretical frameworks. In the thesis, econometric model of Turkey is used for the empirical
study.
The theoretical framework discussed in the thesis is both economic theories and regional
development models. The study shows that all theoretical models offer only partial
explanations of regional growth. While study shows that factors emphasized by traditional
theories support regional growth, the study has no evidence supporting that soft factors
emphasized by recent theories support regional growth.
The main findings of this study contribute to theoretical and empirical field by reintroducing
role of government and interventions. Factors highlighted by recent regional development
theories are not sufficient for explaining growth, since the regional policies at the national
level continue to be important therefore factors emphasized by traditional theories still have
significant contributions to growth.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615764/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 February 2013 |
| Creators | Cicek, Huseyin |
| Contributors | Eraydin, Ayda |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Ph.D. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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