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: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 2014
Number: 2014-078
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2014/wp2014-078.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 645328
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2014078