Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Celbis M.G. 
Author-Name: Crombrugghe D.P.I. de
Author-workplace-name: UNU-MERIT
Title: Can internet infrastructure help reduce regional disparities? : evidence from Turkey
Abstract: This study presents novel evidence regarding the role of regional internet infrastructure in reducing regional per capita income disparities. We base our study on the assumptions that 1 the diffusion of information homogenizes regional economies through reducing the dissimilarities in institutions and culture, and 2 the  telecommunication capacity, represented as the internet infrastructure of a region, facilitates this flow of information. Using the data from the 26 statistical regions of Turkey, we find evidence that internet infrastructure has contributed to regional convergence during the period 1999-2011. We also observe that the Turkish economic geography is defined by a strong core-periphery pattern and significant spatial clustering.
Keywords: Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment: General (includes Measurement and Data); Public Goods; Telecommunications; Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure; Measurement of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence; Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; 
Classification-JEL: R12; L96; E20; H41; O18; O47; .
Series:  Working Papers
Creation-Date: 2014
Number: 078
File-URL: http://pub.maastrichtuniversity.nl/1d093a82-bbfd-4271-8a0f-2a762df65be9
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 645328
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2014078